A Loving Environment
by Gemtail
Summary: An eevee adapts according to it's environment. So when one is raised in a loving environment, it evolves into a sylveon because love is just that powerful. Paul always thought that an eevee just evolved to environments to suit its needs, so at first, the new evolution is useless. But, due to tragic events, he learns it can be powerful. M because of a tragic dark chapter.
1. The Silver Eevee

**A Loving Environment. Just so you know, the humans can't understand pokemon in this unless it says otherwise.**

* * *

Dawn held her new shiny pokemon egg close. It's a gift from her mom's new boyfriend, Danny, after her piplup go into an accident. He had hit him with his car on accident while driving and that's how he met her mom. She wiped away another tear as she looked at her piplup sleeping on her bed, his foot in a cast. She was told that he was going to have a limp for the rest of his life: he won't be able to perform in contests. Dawn had forgiven him but he still felt guilty, often giving the piplup an oran berry when he could.

Danny is a pokemon ranger that has all eeveelutions as part of his team, except a sylveon, which he's working to get. He just doesn't know how someone gets a sylveon. Anyway, he had found one of his pokemon with this egg. It was the wrong color to be an eevee egg: it was white. Scanners said it was fertile, so he decided to give it to Dawn as a gift. Nurse Joy revealed that it was a shiny eevee egg, revealing that his flareon, the one who had the egg, is the mother. The egg suddenly moved.

"Look, piplup! It's hatching!" Dawn said excitedly.

"Really?" Piplup said, hobbling onto his good leg.

Dawn set the egg down and the egg burst open the minute she withdrew her hand. A little eevee kit with silver colored fur blinked its eyes to adjust its vision. Dawn smiled and picked it up.

"Come here, cutie." Dawn said, smiling.

Dawn hugged her newest addition. The eevee hesitantly nuzzled her. Dawn set him down next to piplup.

"Hello, little guy." He said.

"Vee?" It said.

"I guess I'll have to teach you how to talk." Piplup said.

The eevee suddenly nuzzled him.

"Aren't you just affectionate. Woah! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Watch the leg!" Piplup said.

"Okay, get off of piplup. He has a bad leg." Dawn told it.

The eevee kit smiled sheepishly.

"Come on, lets go see my mom! She'd love to meet you!" Dawn said, running downstairs.

Piplup plopped back down onto the bed to get some more sleep.

"Mom! Mom! It hatched!" Dawn said, holding the eevee up.

She found her mom passed out on the floor.

"Mom!" Dawn said, panicked.

* * *

Paul was walking home with his newly acquired sister-in-law, Maylene. He had helped her back at the gym with training. Paul will sometimes battle challengers if they manage to beat Maylene without hurting their pokemon too much. He's managed to get two battles in today, both were easy wins for him. They got back home to find Reggie with something in his arms. He was looking down at it with worried eyes.

"What is that, Reg?" Maylene asked.

"It's an eevee I found in an alley. She's in bad shape." He said.

"I want to see." Maylene said.

"I don't think you want to, she's not an easy sight to look at." Reggie said.

"How bad can she be?" Paul asked.

"I'll put it this way: I brought her here to die. She's barely even breathing." Reggie said, setting down the eevee.

She was skin and bone, almost looking like a rotting carcass. Her body struggled to breathe. Maylene gasped, horrified, while Paul gaped.

"Oh the poor thing! Who could do such a thing?!" Maylene asked, almost crying.

"And Dawn says I'm heartless." Paul muttered.

"You're not heartless. This sight wouldn't upset you if you were." Reggie said.

Paul walked over and set his hand on the eevee's neck. She still had a pulse and her breathing was just barely strong enough to not need help with.

"Is there anything anyone can do?" Paul asked.

"Nurse Joy said to just keep her comfortable until she passes." Reggie said, comforting his wife.

Paul held the eevee in his arms. Her body was cold and it felt so frail, so fragile that he could break it in one wrong move. He carried her up to his room and shut the door. Reggie hadn't seen Paul so determined in a long time.

"What's he going to do?" Maylene asked.

"He's going to do what he can." Reggie said.

"But Nurse Joy said it's hopeless." Maylene said.

"He could care less about what Nurse Joy said. Paul won't give up until that eevee has no pulse. Just let him try to save her for now." Reggie said.

Maylene was dumbfounded that Paul would actually do such a thing. All she could do now was wait and hope Paul knew what he was doing.

* * *

Dawn paced outside the doctor's office with her eevee in one arm and piplup in the other. Danny arrived, looking frantic and worried.

"Is your mom alright?" He asked her.

"I don't know yet. I just found her passed out on the floor." Dawn said.

Then he noticed the eevee kit in her arms.

"Whoa! A silver eevee!" He said.

A silver eevee is another nickname for a shiny eevee.

"Yeah, it hatched from that egg you gave me." Dawn said.

"Let me see it for a minute and I'll tell you its gender." Danny said.

"Alright, here." Dawn said.

The eevee nuzzled and licked his face. Danny couldn't help but laugh.

"This one is very affectionate. Oh my! It's a little boy! I thought he'd be a girl but I guess not." Danny said.

"Wow, really?! I never would have guessed!" Dawn said.

Then the doctor came out with Johanna actually walking next to him.

"Mom, are you alright?" Dawn asked.

"I'm fine." She said with a reassuring smile.

"She just got exhausted is all. Any way, I'll leave it to her to tell you what the cause was." The doctor said before leaving.

"What is it?" Danny asked.

"Well... I'm pregnant." Johanna said.

Dawn and Danny gaped at her in shock.

"I'm going to be a daddy/sister?!" They both said at the same time.

"If all goes well within the next nine months, yes." Johanna said with a smile.

For Dawn, that day was probably her most memorable one yet.

* * *

Paul was on his computer, the eevee was in his jacket that he turned into a small cushion for her to sleep in. He decided to contact an old acquaintance for some advice. In his bag next to him were a bunch of berries he had collected. He logged onto his computer and called a person he hoped could help.

"Hey, Paul, why are you of all people calling me?" A familiar voice asked.

"I need your help, Brock." Paul said.

"With what? It must be serious if you've come to me." Brock said.

"My brother found this eevee in an alley way and she's in bad shape. I don't know if she'll make it through the night." Paul said.

"Can you angle the camera so I can see?" Brock asked.

Paul grabbed the camera and showed him the eevee. Brock was shocked to see the eevee in such a horrible condition.

"This looks bad. I'm guessing Nurse Joy told you to let her die, right?" Brock asked.

"Just, tell me if there's a way to save her." Paul snapped.

Brock was surprised at Paul. He really does care for pokemon.

"Alright, all I can tell you is to get some berries. I'll recommend oran or sitrus berries to try and heal her a little bit. A babiri berry might help provide some energy. And finally, a lum berry will help with any poison or paralysis. I also recommend mixing in a cherry and pecha berry to cover up the bitter taste. I'd recommend a revival herb if you had one. It should perk her up a bit." Brock said.

"I don't have one but I do have connections that might." Paul said.

"Good. Give her the berry mix to boost her a bit for now. The bitterness of the revival herb my shock her awake too much, so try and make something to dull down the flavor." Brock said.

"Got it. Thanks Brock." Paul said.

"Good luck." Brock said before leaving.

Paul mixed up the berries in a small blender and managed to get the eevee to swallow enough of it. Her breathing grew a little stronger along with her pulse. Paul then contacted someone else.

"Paul?!" Cynthia said, surprised.

"I need your help." Paul said.

"With what?" She asked.

"Do you have a revival herb?" He asked.

"Yeah, why?" She asked.

"My brother found this eevee in an alleyway." Paul said, showing her the eevee.

"Oh my! How horrible! Who did this to that poor thing?!" She asked.

"We don't know, Reggie found her like this. Nurse Joy told us to let her die because there was nothing she could do." Paul said.

"Hmm... I'll be there in a minute. Alakazam, use teleport." Cynthia said.

Suddenly, she was in the room next to him.

"That was fast." Paul said.

"No time to lose. I got the revival herb right here." She said.

She mashed it up into a powder and they mixed it with a pecha and a pinap berry to give it a better taste. Cynthia had Paul hold the eevee in a position so that she wouldn't choke. Paul rubbed the eevee's throat to try and encourage it to swallow. It managed to wake up enough to swallow on its own, even let out a small whine. Cynthia sighed in relief when she managed to have the kit swallow the last bite.

"That's all we can do for now. I better get going." She said, taking a snap shot of the eevee.

"What's that for?" Paul asked.

"To find whoever did this." Cynthia said before having her alakazam teleport her back to where they were.

The eevee kit was shivering, still cold. Paul picked the eevee kit up and held it against himself, wrapping her in his jacket. The eevee kit snuggled against him slightly. Paul laid on his bed, the eevee laying on his chest. He fell asleep, hoping the eevee would still be alive by the time he awoke.

* * *

**Another Ikarishipping story but I intend to finish this one. The last one I attempted had too much going on that I couldn't keep up.**


	2. The Miracle Eevee

**Alright! Let's check up on what's going on! The eevee story is actually based off of what one of my uncles did with a kitten. The only difference is that the kitten got hurt when an ironing board fell on top of her. Blood came out of every hole in her head and she would have been put down. But my uncle took her into his room and spent days in his room, only leaving to eat or use the bathroom. Then one day, he came out and something like this happened.**

* * *

Reggie didn't know what Paul was doing. He hardly came out of his room. The only time he did was to eat. He had a bathroom in his own bedroom. Reggie and Maylene didn't even know if the eevee was dead and he was just grieving or if it was alive still and he's still taking care of it. But then, one day, Paul came out of his room with the eevee on his shoulder. Her body was still somewhat skinny but way better than what it was. Her eyes were bright and alert.

"Oh my goodness! You actually saved her!" Maylene said, surprised and overjoyed.

"Yeah. I'll have Nurse Joy look her over." Paul said.

"I can't believe it! Good job, Paul." Reggie said, clapping him on the back, almost jolting the eevee off of him.

Paul took the eevee back to the pokemon center and Nurse Joy got the shock of her life.

"Oh my goodness! You actually saved it!" She said, surprised.

"I have connections." Paul said.

"Okay, I'll check her for you. I don't know how this is possible." Nurse Joy said, having her chancey wheel her into the back.

Nurse Joy later came back with the eevee on her shoulder.

"She's a living miracle. None of my technology could have done this. Good job, Paul, I'm impressed. She still has to fill out more but it's nothing a little food won't fix." Nurse Joy said, handing him his eevee back.

"Will she be able to battle?" Paul asked.

"Not any time soon but when she's recovered, yes." Nurse Joy said.

Paul looked down at the little eevee.

"I guess I got myself a new partner." He said, smiling sincerely for the first time in a long time.

* * *

Dawn was with her mom and new step dad in the waiting room at the hospital. Piplup and the shiny eevee were both in her lap.

"What are we doing here?" The silver eevee asked.

"To check on Johanna's baby." Piplup replied.

"Do humans lay eggs?" The silver eevee asked.

"I don't know, this is my first time actually experiencing a human pregnancy." Piplup said.

"When will the baby be here?" The silver eevee asked.

"I don't know, kit. We'll find out soon though, here comes one of the white coats." Piplup said.

"Johanna, right this way, please." The nurse said.

The family went down the hall and into a room with a machine and some kind of chair the silver eever hadn't seen before. The nurse turned on the machine and Johanna lifted her shirt up, revealing her belly. The nurse applied a gel to her belly before applying the ultrasound to it.

"Wouldn't it be funny if she had twins." Danny joked.

"Well, then I guess you should start laughing because she does have twins." the nurse said.

"Good one, nurse! Haha!" Danny laughed.

"Actually, Danny, she's serious." Johanna said with a smile.

Danny and Dawn gaped at the screen. The nurse pointed out both of them.

"One sac, so they're both identical twins... and they're both boys." She said, pointing out an object coming off of one of them.

Danny jumped up in the air joyously.

"Woohoo! Twins! And they're boys!" He said happily.

"What if they were girls?" Dawn asked pointedly.

"I'd still love them anyway, it just that now I don't have to worry about being surrounded by women all the time." He said.

Ah yes, even the majority of his eeveelution team are females, the only males being jolteon, leafeon, and umbreon. But those males didn't mind being outnumbered. Dawn felt even more excited.

"Humans don't lay eggs? How are they born?" the silver eevee wondered.

"Maybe it's like the way eggs are laid but without the shells." Piplup said.

"Hmm... So they'll be out and moving already? I wonder what a human kit is like." the silver eevee said.

"I'm wondering the same." Piplup said.

* * *

Paul's eevee had gotten stronger. Today was her first day of training. Despite having a strong team, the majority of them knew how to weaken their attacks gentle enough not to KO the eevee right away. She actually had a nice first day of training, already knowing how to use shadow ball. She was resting on torterra's shell underneath the tree on his back. Torterra always was the gentler one of all his pokemon and he was more than happy to help out with the new baby.

Paul was having lunch with his team. His eevee had already eaten enough food. Most of it consisted of oran berries to give her more energy to train. The rest of his team played after eating. Paul didn't always keep a tight leash on his pokemon: he'll let them have free time. Torterra was happy just to rest and allow the young eevee to sleep. Finally, she got up and stretched. Paul's weavile decided to try and play with her. She chased after the faster weavile. While doing so, she learned quick attack. This was another reason why it was good to let pokemon train: they can learn new moves.

She looked back at Paul as if to say 'what did I do?'. Paul got up and decided to help her sharpen this move up.

"Alright, weavile, want to help her with this one?" He asked.

Weavile smiled and nodded.

"Eevee, chase weavile using quick attack. Try catching him." He told her.

She did as she was told but quick attack is normally used in short bursts, not for a game of tag, especially with weavile as a playmate. However, she was fast and managed to hold out the quick attack far longer than most pokemon would. She stopped to catch her breath. Paul gave her a minute to rest. Then weavile taunted her and they were off again. She eventually caught him, much to the surprise and delight of Paul and the team. It was official, his eevee was a prodigy. She and him went home, she was eating a pinap berry while he carried her in his arms.

* * *

_Four months later..._

Dawn was helping her mom with decorating the nursery. It was decided to be an eeveelution them and she had painted all the eeveelutions on the wall, including Sylveon. The silver eevee noticed this evolution and stared up at it curiously. The flareon in Danny's team came up next to him.

"That's a sylveon. It's a fairy type evolution." He said.

"How does an eevee evolve into that?" He asked.

"Is this the evolution you want to take on? Dawn won't force you into evolving into something you don't want to be." Flareon said.

After thinking for sometime, the silver eevee nodded.

"Heh, well if you want to evolve into that, then I can't tell you exactly how to. It's not an ordinary evolution that can simply be done with a stone or a certain level of strength, either. It all has to do with your bond with your trainer. You have to know a fairy type move, which you already do: baby doll eyes. But, you also have to have a strong feeling come over you when you evolve into that." Flareon said.

"What feeling?" The silver eevee asked.

"Love." Flareon said with a smile.

"How do I know when I feel it?" Silver asked.

"You'll know. Don't go looking for it, either. It takes time." Flareon said.

The silver eevee didn't entirely understand but he felt determined, he wanted to be a sylveon. He jumped up at the evolution.

"You like sylveon?" Dawn asked.

He nodded.

"Hmm... Hey, Danny, can I ask you a question?" Dawn Asked.

"You can call me dad, you know. But anyway, what is it, sweetheart?" He asked.

"How do you evolve an eevee into a sylveon?" Dawn asked.

"Pfft! You're not going to make that poor boy evolve into a girly thing like that, are you?" He asked.

"He wants to, don't you?" Dawn asked.

The eevee nodded and Danny chuckled.

"I guess it's fitting for a contest pokemon. Evolving an eevee into a sylveon is not used by any ordinary means. Every eeveelution has something to do with the environment." Danny said.

"What kind of environment does an eevee need to evolve into a sylveon? Does it involve stone or more training?" Dawn asked.

"It has nothing to do with their strength or a stone, but their emotions. What you need for an evolution like that is a loving environment. When the silver eevee feels a lot of love, then he should evolve." Danny said.

"So... He just needs a loving environment?" Dawn asked.

"Yep and he already has that but there has to be an instant where he's thinking 'I really love everyone'." Danny said.

Dawn decided to get to work, starting with her team.

* * *

**That's it for now! Wow, these chapters are short but oh well! Onto the next one!**


	3. A Powerful Emotion

**Alright, new chapter involving Paul, Dawn, and their eevees!**

* * *

_Three months later..._

Paul walked with the miracle eevee next to him when suddenly, a news crew came up to him.

"Excuse me, Paul, but we've heard about the story about your eevee and we were wondering if we could get a few shots and an interview? It could help bring her old owner to justice." One of the reporters said.

The story about the miracle eevee has been famous around the city. He wasn't surprised to see the news wanting to broadcast it. So he looked down at his eevee.

"What do you think, girl?" He asked her.

She nodded with a smile.

"Alright, do you want her to do anything? I've been training her." Paul said.

"Yeah! Show us some moves!" the reporter said.

"Not here, let's go somewhere more open." The camera man said.

So Paul decided to take this to his house in the back yard. Reggie and Maylene actually called the newscast to see if they wanted to hear the story. They were more than happy to broadcast about an eevee that came back from the brink of death. Paul has been infamously known as a harsh trainer, so hearing this will probably move a lot of people. It will also improve Paul's image, especially since head coordinator Zoey has been talking crap about how cruel he was to his pokemon. Paul never was cruel, he was just a hell bent on winning. While he did insult his pokemon, he never raised a hand to them. This was the perfect time to prove her wrong.

"Eevee, use quick attack, and weavile, do what you can to keep away." Paul said.

Both grinned at each other and the chase began. The eevee actually unknowingly broke the record for longest quick attack. The newscast spent the day, recording Paul with his eevee, getting info. Paul even took pictures on the eevee's progress every day. After a day of recording the miracle eevee, they took it all back to base to put together a story.

Here's how the story went:

Paul gave the command to the eevee to use a quick attack to catch weavile.

"Meet the miracle eevee and her trainer, Paul." Said a narrator.

Another shot was shown with Paul getting help from Brock on his webcam when he called him that night. The eevee was in horrendous condition.

"Nurse Joy told me to just let her go." Paul said.

"This is a shot of what the eevee looked like when Paul first had her. It's not an easy sight to look at. She was too far gone for Nurse Joy to do anything for her." The narrator said.

The shot then went to Paul.

"I couldn't let her die. I know not everyone thinks highly about me but I'm not heartless enough to just give up and let her die without trying." Paul said, while she was on his shoulder, rubbing her cheek against his.

The shot went to Brock working with pokemon at pokemon center.

"After getting advice from pokemon Doctor Brock and getting a revival herb from Cynthia, he managed to pull her from death. Her road to recovery had been slow and even more surprising is that he did this all by himself." The reporter said.

The shot went to Reggie.

"He spent weeks in his room only coming out to get food. We didn't know if the eevee was dead and he was crushed by it or if she was alive still. Paul may always act tough and say harsh things but he has a good heart if you look for it." Reggie said.

The shot went to the miracle eevee chasing after the weavile.

"Now she's almost unrecognizable from the day she was left to die out in the rain." The reporter said.

Maylene came on.

"I remember the first time I saw her. I cried that whole night, she looked so horrible. Then Paul surprised me by taking her. I didn't think he would take her. I didn't know how long he had stayed in his room. I thought for sure that eevee had died. But then, one day, he came out of his room with the eevee on his shoulder and... words couldn't describe how surprised I was. I was so happy to see that she made it." Maylene said, wiping off some tears in her eyes.

Pictures of her progress came up.

"Paul had kept track of her progress." The reporter said.

It went back to shots of Paul spending time with the miracle eevee. It was shots of him with her on his lap as he did some research on his computer, spending time with the team, a picture of them asleep together on the couch, and her asleep on torterra's shell next to Paul as he's fighting with his weaville over food. These shots came on as he said some more things.

"It took her a week to open her eyes. A week later, I had to help her walk for awhile. She felt so frail, like I could break her if I made one wrong move. It took her another two weeks for her to finally walk on her own. Then it took another few weeks for her to finally become strong enough to leave my room. She was still skinny and even now, she still has some filling out to do, but she shows real promise. Already, she's able to use a quick attack up to five minutes. I won't be doing any real training with her until she's stronger but right now, she's been making leaps." Paul said.

The final shot involved the miracle eevee finally catching weaville. She then tackled Paul and nuzzled him. His face wasn't facing the camera but the way he held the eevee up over himself, you can only assume he's smiling.

"She isn't going anywhere, she's my girl." Paul said.

"The eevee seems to be a valuable member of Paul's team and will be for the rest of her life, whether or not she's strong enough for battle. We hope to see her in the Sinnoh league next year with Paul. This is Tom Richards, and this is Sinnoh News." The reporter said.

Then the news went to another story, an unexpected one. The camera went to Johanna, with Dawn and piplup listening to her belly, a shiny eevee on top of her belly, seeming to be startled with something beneath himself. Danny had his arm around his wife and they laughed as both pokemon and Dawn looked surprised at a movement. Their wedding was also on the news.

"Ex top coordinator Johanna is expecting twins. On top of her stomach, playing with the moving babies is none other than Dawn's newest addition, a shiny eevee." The reporter said.

"I was surprised to find out I was going to be a big sister and then I hear I'll have two little brothers. I can't wait." Dawn said with a smile.

"Contest season has started a few days ago and already, Dawn has gotten two ribbons." the reporter said.

"She's showing real talent. I'm sure she'll become top coordinator easily." Johanna said.

"And it's all thanks to Dawn's newest addition: her shiny eevee." The reporter said.

"He's been showing real promise. I'm happy to see that he's excelled in contest battles. I couldn't have asked for a better partner." She said.

"Her old partner, piplup, however, has to watch from the stands ever since his accident a few months ago." the reporter said.

"It hasn't been easy for him but he and my eevee are good friends and he's been a good big brother to him, always helping him with his moves." Dawn said.

"Piplup may not be able to perform but he's going to make sure the rest of his team does nothing but the best." The reporter said.

The shot went back to the family.

"As for Johanna, she'll have her hands full soon and she'll be due in a few more weeks, possibly by the end of the season." The reporter said.

* * *

Dawn was absolutely moved by the news report about Paul. Originally, she watched to see their story and was even recording it. She was glad she hit record sooner because there was Paul, showing a good side. She couldn't help but want to check up on him sometime but her contests have been keeping her busy. Maybe she'll watch him battle at the Sinnoh league.

The silver eevee stared at the miracle eevee with interest. His heart went out to her when he heard her story. He was happy to see that she and her trainer were close. He smiled and hoped he'd cross paths with the eevee on tv. He somehow had a feeling he would see her soon.

Then the silver eevee and Dawn heard her mom give off a pained yelp. Forgetting all about the newscast, they rushed into the kitchen and found her mom standing over a puddle of liquid. The silver eevee sniffed the puddle and then looked up at Johanna with alarm.

"Mom?!" Dawn asked, scared.

"Dawn, they're coming." She said.

Quickly, she called Palmer to come and drive them to the nearest hospital. The silver eevee ran with them out the door along with piplup. Palmer sped over to the hospital, running every red light. They arrived at the hospital in five minutes. The doctors and nurses got her a room. Danny came running through the door with his entire team. He hadn't even bothered to take them home. Dawn and the team waited in the waiting room, worried for Johanna. Then she heard a lullaby tune on the intercom that had played twice, signifying their arrival. After awhile, Danny came out with a smile.

"Dawn, come meet your brothers." He said.

Dawn and the eeveelution team followed Danny to a room where Johanna was, holding two babies in her arms. She had just gotten done feeding them. The silver eevee stood on Dawn's shoulder to get a better look. Dawn sat on a chair next to her mom. Both of them smiled at each other.

"Dawn, meet Charlie and Jamie." She said with a smile.

"Hi, boys, I'm Dawn." She said to them. softly.

"Stay there, Dawn, I'll help you hold them." Danny said.

He then grabbed Jamie and put him in Dawn's arms and then he put Charlie in her other arm. The silver eevee jumped onto Johanna's bed to get a closer look. He sniffed them both curiously as the rest of the team smiled on. Piplup was on Dawn's lap, already hugging both boys. The silver eevee smiled and then looked around the room. Everyone was so happy and the room was filled with love. He then looked up at Dawn and the look she had on her face as she looked at the boys was filled with so much love. The silver eevee smiled and felt his heart fill with so much love that he felt it was going to burst. He looked down at the twins and he suddenly felt his body change but his eyes didn't leave Dawn and the twins, even when his body stopped glowing.

Everyone stared at him in his new form: there on the bed between Johanna and Dawn was a blue sylveon. He nuzzled both babies, wrapping his ribbons around them and a shocked Dawn.

* * *

**That's the silver eevee evolving into the blue sylveon! Let's see what happens to Paul and his eevee next!**


	4. A Dark Emotion

**Okay, Paul and his eevee!**

* * *

_One year later..._

"Alright, eevee, use bite!" Paul called.

The eevee bit alakazam instantly, causing it to flinch in pain. It was night time and Paul had challenged Cynthia to a one on one battle. His eevee was strong and she had become Paul's pride and joy. She went from skin and bones to a power house for her size. Paul had been trying to evolve her. But, couldn't figure out what she wanted to evolve into. She refused every evolutionary stone he offered her, she hates cold climates to the point where she won't train in them, she won't let herself evolve at day time or in heavily wooded areas and there was no way in hell Paul was letting her evolve in to Sylveon. He wouldn't be caught dead with such a girly pokemon. Besides, to him, a sylveon was of no use. He also had no idea how to evolve one. Paul decided to try training her at night. This was his first time training her in the night and then Cynthia came to check on her. Paul wanted to show of her strength and so there they were, battling together.

"Shadow ball!" Paul shouted next.

Cynthia gave the eevee a type advantage on purpose but she didn't expect that shadow ball to do as much damage as it did. Cynthia decided to take it up a notch.

"Use Psybeam!" She called.

"Dodge it, eevee!" Paul called.

The eevee was very nimble and light on her feet but Cynthia is the champion for a good reason. Her alakazam made the eevee run so fast that she had to use a quick attack to dodge. Paul loved that his eevee could improvise but she shouldn't be using attacks without being told to do so. She barely managed to avoid the psybeam.

"Don't let her get away! Use agility and then use another psybeam!" Cynthia called.

"Shadow ball!" Paul called.

The Alakazam took the shadow ball but it knocked him over for a moment. He shot a psybeam at the eevee and it hit her directly. She was knocked back into a tree, causing the tree to actually fall over. Cynthia didn't expect the eevee to get up but then... her body glowed. Paul smiled triumphantly. It was about time she evolved! The glowing figure got up and jumped high up into the air. When she landed, she was an umbreon and she grinned at the alakazam and Cynthia with the same cocky smirk her trainer was wearing. Paul took out his pokedex and was delighted to see that she had new moves.

"Alright, umbreon! Shadow claw!" Paul called.

"Mach punch!" Cynthia shouted.

"Dodge using quick attack!" Paul shouted.

Amazingly, it seems that her speed doubled when she evolved. She ducked under alakazam's mach punch and then hit him head on with a shadow claw powered by a quick attack. It sent alakazam flying and he had been knocked out instantly. The dark pokemon grinned triumphantly and walked back to Paul with a spring in her step. She rubbed up against his leg and he patted her head.

"Good job, girl." He said to her as she leaned into his hand.

"I'm impressed. She's definitely come a long way from where she was. I didn't think she'd be able to beat my pokemon." Cynthia said, returning her pokemon to its ball.

"Yeah. We plan on taking your title this year." Paul said, grinning back at her.

"Well, good luck with that. I heard you finally managed to beat the battle frontier." Cynthia said.

"Yeah, eev- er- umbreon, was a huge help." Paul told her.

"Oh, I almost forgot to tell you! Dawn won top coordinator!" Cynthia said.

Paul paused. He was about to make some kind of rude remark such as: 'who cares?' or 'that's a surprise'. Old habits die hard but, at least he's trying to tone his rude habits down. He didn't really know what to think about her new title. He hasn't seen Dawn in what felt like ages. The last time he saw her was on that news report with her family. Speaking of which, her two brothers must have been born by now... Possibly even a year old.

"Well?" Cynthia asked.

"Sorry, it's just that I never exactly put much thought into what she's been doing." He said honestly.

That was his polite way of pretty much saying 'I don't care'.

"That's too bad. She asks about you a lot." Cynthia said.

Paul was suprised at this news. What does she care? He's done nothing to make her like him. Is she trying to stalk him? But then again, Paul felt somewhat flattered that she would actually care to ask. Then this thought made him feel a little bad about not checking in on her... But then again, what's the point? He doesn't like her and he doesn't see why on earth she would like him. Of course, maybe she did gain a little more respect for him as time went on. She was actually willing to stop Zoey from picking a fight with him and even willing to listen to him that one time at the Sinnoh League. That was more than what most people gave him.

"What for? I'm not exactly much to think about or is she just curious about umbreon?" Paul asked.

"No, she's asked about you before you got her but she has asked about her, too. Funny thing is, she was probably the only one who wasn't all too shocked about you saving umbreon. She was moved but she wasn't surprised." Cynthia said.

Dawn doesn't think he's heartless? Okay, granted, she called him that around the first few times they've met each other. Maybe he shouldn't have taken it all to heart as much as he did.

"Okay, then how's she been?" Paul asked.

Cynthia chuckled at this, knowing he was only asking because she made him feel bad. It was kind of cute.

"She's been fine. Her sylveon is probably her best contest pokemon yet, alongside her lopbunny. Her brothers turned a year old today." Cynthia said.

"A Sylveon?! Of all things she could have evolved that eevee into, she picked a sylveon?!" Paul asked, almost distraught.

"She didn't pick it, it did. It wanted to evolve into sylveon. If it was up to Dawn, she would have had it evolve into an umbreon." Cynthia said.

"But why a Sylveon? It's not exactly a useful evolution. It's not an evolution that adapts to any kind of environment." Paul said.

"Wrong, Paul. A sylveon evolves in a loving environment. It's a fairy type evolution." Cynthia said.

"Fairy type?!" He scoffed.

Paul is definitely no sucker for girly girl things and thinks that fairy types are ridiculous. He never saw a point in having one. Cynthia grinned, an idea forming in her head as to how to get Paul to meet Dawn again.

"You know, it's actually rumored that this evolution might be one of eevee's strongest ones yet." Cynthia said.

"I'll be the judge of that. Come on, Umbreon, let's go prove who the real strongest eeveelution is." Paul said, getting on his honchcrow, Umbreon sitting across his lap.

"You might want to wait until morning. Dawn isn't exactly a noctowl like you two are." Cynthia said.

"I was going home to go to bed." Paul said, his face flushed from embarrassment.

He flew off on honchcrow and Cynthia laughed. Paul definitely had the right makings of taking on the championship but he still had some growing up to do.

* * *

Dawn was up early in the morning as the sun was rising. Her sylveon was prancing around ahead of her with piplup hobbling after him. They were just on their morning walk. This early in the morning was Dawn's favorite part of the day: it was peaceful and quiet, no one is up making noise, and on top of that, the sun is rising beautifully from the horizon. The sun shone a beautiful coppery orange, light a giant bright new penny. Soon, the sun rose higher and higher. Eventually, Dawn had to go back to the house and help make breakfast. Danny smiled at her as she, Sylveon, and Piplup came in.

"Hey, sweetheart." He greeted.

"Hey, dad." She said with a smile.

She had just gotten used to calling him dad a month ago. Even now, it still felt a little weird. She put some coffee on and helped her mom make some scrambled eggs, sautéed carrots in syrup for the babies, and some ham. Finally, Dawn went upstairs to go wake up the boys and bring them down. Sylveon skipped alongside her as she made her way to their room, across from hers. She opened the door, walked passed the cribs, and opened the curtains. Both boys grimaced as the unwanted light came in. Sylveon jumped into Jamie's bed and nudged his cheek while Dawn picked Charlie up and gently shook him awake. Sylveon carefully picked Jamie up using his ribbons and jumped down from the crib, keeping the infant close to his chest under his neck ribbon. The jump jolted Jamie awake but when he saw that it was just sylveon, he settled down. The pair carried the boys downstairs and put them both in their high chairs.

Johanna had already cut up their ham, eggs, and carrots into small bits. The boys both perked up once they noticed there was breakfast in front of them. Sylveon and Dawn both spoon fed the boys. Both boys ate anything you offer them, so it's usually no trouble to feed them. However, they do hate carrots unless they're sautéed in syrup, which is usually apart of their breakfast or dessert. Sylveon and Dawn alternate between the two each morning. Their jobs, when it comes to helping, is to wake the twins up and feed them in the morning and also to babysit when they need to. Dawn and Sylveon are always wide awake in the morning, more so than mom or dad. That's why they usually take care of the boys in the morning.

Sylveon made weird faces when he feeds the babies, like he's trying to show them how to eat. He doesn't need to, though; both boys are gluttons that eat anything that's food. Still, it was something Sylveon did and the boys loved it. Finally, both Dawn and Sylveon spooned the last few bites into the babies' mouths before moving on to their own breakfast. Lopbunny decided to take the boys into the living room to entertain them while the grown ups ate. Lopbunny was also a good babysitter for the twins like sylveon is. She likes to help feed them during snack time.

Anyway, Dawn and Sylveon settled down to eat. The grown ups talked about their day, what Dawn will be doing within the week, what Danny will be doing during his job, and so on. Dawn is too busy to stick around much with being top coordinator. She's only here because she requested to have this day as family time because of the twins' birthday. She was happy to have a regular day at home for once. Soon, breakfast got over with and she decided to spend the day with her brothers, since she won't have much time for them. She played with them at a local playground along with her team of pokemon. Johanna had brought stuff to have a picnic. It was around sometime after lunch when unexpected visitors came.

The family had just gotten around the block when they saw them on the deck, waiting. They got up to the deck.

"Paul?" Dawn said, surprised.

"Troublesome." He said, acknowledging her.

"It's Dawn." She corrected but unable to hide her smile.

"Really? Last time I checked, it seemed to be noon outside." He said, unable to help being a smart ass, but he meant it more of a playful joke.

"You know what I meant you smart aa-aleck." She said, quickly catching herself before saying a swear word in front of the boys.

"Watch it, Troublesome. You don't want them learning some colorful language, do you?" Paul chuckled.

"I'm taking the boys inside." Johanna said.

Then the blue sylveon notice Paul's umbreon. He smiled and pranced right up to her, hugging her with his ribbons.

"Hello, sweetheart!" He said, happy to meet a new friend.

Paul's umbreon, however, didn't like getting this close to strange pokemon. The sylveon freaked her out, too. His feminine voice made her unable to tell what gender he was. In fact, she thought he was a female pokemon trying to hook up with her. She jumped back away from him and arched her back, her fur fully bristled. She growled at him and sylveon gave her a sweet apologetic smile.

"I'm sorry, honey, I didn't mean to scare you." He said to her.

"It's fine... J-just stay away from me!" She said, honest to arceus, terrified of that thing that looked like a little girl randomly glued ribbons to.

Sylveon was a little hurt by her reaction. He looked up at Dawn.

"She doesn't like me." He said, obviously hurt.

"Don't touch me with those ribbons again, ugly fairy!" The umbreon said, shivering.

"Ugly?! Hmph! I'm fabulous!" Sylveon said, flipping his ears and ribbons like a model would her hair to emphasize how fabulous he was.

"I came to challenge your sylveon against my umbreon." Paul said.

This took Dawn by surprise.

"Oh good! I get to hit it!" Umbreon said.

"Why must you hate me, sweetie?" Sylveon asked.

"Because you look so... Girly!" Umbreon said.

"I look like a girl?" Sylveon asked.

"Of course you do because you _are!_" Umbreon growled, annoyed.

Sylveon broke out into a fit of giggles. This wouldn't be the first time he's been mistaken for a girl, which usually gives him an advantage in a lot of fights. You'll see why in a minute.

"What?!" Umbreon asked, terrified of 'her' giggles.

"Oh you'll know soon enough, my dear." He said, giggling.

"_You_ want to challenge _me_? Why?" Dawn asked.

"I want to see just how strong your sylveon is. She shouldn't be too much trouble." Paul said.

Dawn gave it some thought and then realized the error in Paul's judgement. She looked at her sylveon and he nodded.

The went to the back yard. Paul and umbreon were both cocky about this fight but Dawn and Sylveon had a strategy. They both knew the battle was over before it had begun. If there was one thing they should know about contest battles, it's that they're done with careful planning and strategizing. Dawn had just the strategy and if Paul had actually seen her battle with Sylveon, he would have realized his mistake sooner. He was going to get a wake up call.

"We'll let you two make the first move." Paul said.

"Are you sure?" Dawn asked.

"I want to give you a fighting chance." Paul sneered.

"Okay." Dawn said with a smile.

"Normally, I'm chivalrous and allow the ladies to go first." Sylveon said with a smile.

"What are you talking about?!" Umbreon asked.

"Sylveon, use attract." Dawn said.

Sylveon shot the attack at her and he grinned as she just stood there, thinking it wouldn't affect her.

"Do you really think that's going to work?!" Both trainer and umbreon asked their respective opponents.

The attack hit umbreon and much to Paul's shock and horror, it had worked.

"Yes, I do." Both Dawn and Sylveon said with a smug grin.

"Th-that thing... Is a male?!" Paul said, surprised and utterly horrified.

"Yes. You're move, Paul." Dawn said, giggling.

"Umbreon, snap out of it! Use shadow claw!" He shouted.

She didn't move and only stared at her opponent with dreamy eyes. Dark thoughts clouded her mind as she stared at him longingly.

"You know, now that I look at you, you're kind of cute." Umbreon said with a dreamy smile.

"That's more like it, honey. I think I prefer you this way." Sylveon giggled.

"Come on, Umbreon! You're better than this! Snap out of it and use dark pulse!" Paul shouted frantically.

Umbreon wasn't listening: she was on cloud nine.

"Blue fairy, blue fairy, grant me a wish... Come and give me a kiss." She said, seductively.

"Use draining kiss." Dawn said, almost as if she understood the conversation

Sylveon smirked and pranced right up to his willing opponent.

"Your wish is my command, sweetheart." He said before kissing her right on the lips.

Umbreon kissed back only to feel her energy slowly drain away. Sylveon pulled away, smiling at her with affectionate eyes.

"Nighty night, honey." He said as her eyes started to close.

She fell to the side, completely knocked out and smiling. Paul gaped at the entire scene, trying to register what had happened: his umbreon had lost for the first time in a long time... To probably girliest looking thing in the world. Dawn walked up and looked at the umbreon. Paul silently walked over.

"At least she's smiling. She's not even hurt." Dawn chuckled.

"How the hell is that thing a male? He doesn't even act like it." Paul said.

"He's a bit feminine. He's always been slightly feminine ever since he hatched." Dawn said, patting him on the head.

"She's not going to be happy about this when she wakes up... I don't know what will set her off more: her loss or both of us thinking he was a female." Paul said, giving her a lum berry.

The umbreon woke up and looked into the eyes of none other than sylveon. She quickly slid out from underneath him and was fluffed up even more.

"Y-you're a male?!" She said, surprised.

"Indeed I am, sweet baby." He said with a smile.

The umbreon didn't know if she should be relieved that this is a male hitting on her or be more disgusted because it _is_ a male.

"Told you so." Paul said.

"You can stay for dinner if you want. I have to leave tomorrow anyway." Dawn said.

"Sure." Paul said.

"But Paul!" Umbreon pleaded but he wasn't listening.

Umbreon looked at Paul and how he looked at Dawn. Jealousy bubbled up within the dark pokemon. This girl had to be using cute charm or something. No one steals Paul away from Umbreon without permission. Sylveon suddenly slid his ribbons around her and rubbed his cheek against hers. She was too drained from the battle to fight him off this time. She definitely didn't want to see this creep any longer!

"Yay! We get to spend more time together!" Sylveon said gleefully.

"Yay..." Umbreon said sarcastically.

The followed their trainers inside.

* * *

**There you have it for chapter four! See you next time!**


	5. Family Environment

**Okay, it's time we get back with what Paul, Dawn, and their eeveelutions. Fine... I'll add another chapter.**

* * *

Umbreon scowled as the blue sylveon talked to her happily. Paul was getting stared down by Charlie and Jamie and he looked back. Both boys were curious about their guest. Paul shifted under their gaze nervously. Never has he had to deal with children but for him, that was going to change soon. Maylene was pregnant back at home. However, that didn't stop her from being a gym leader and she still battled and trained, just not as vigorously. There were days Paul himself would take over the gym, using Maylene's pokemon to battle. It took awhile but, he did manage to get the respect of her lucario. Now both have a mutual respect and know when they need to look after the gym. However, despite the fact that he'll soon become an uncle, that didn't mean he was anymore comfortable around infants. In fact, kids completely terrified Paul but not because he thinks they're anything bad, but because he's afraid that he'd hurt any child who comes in contact with him. A bad reputation has made Paul doubt himself. He often questions if he's really that bad.

"Alright, dinner time." Johanna said.

"Yay! Can I feed one of them?!" The blue sylveon asked excitedly while running in a circle at Johanna's feet.

"I'll feed Charlie." Dawn said.

"Okay, if you want." Johanna said, placing the food in front of her boys.

Both boys will soon be big enough to feed themselves but since Dawn and sylveon will be leaving tomorrow, they wanted to spend more time with them. Sylveon continued his routine of making funny faces. The miracle umbreon couldn't help but watch. She had to admit, even though the feminine male was, well, feminine, he was a sweetheart. He loved children, he loved people, and he loved other pokemon. This pokemon just loved everyone and everything. The umbreon then felt her emotions shift about the blue fairy type. Ignoring her food, she stared up at him and watched in amusement as he fed little Jamie. Soon, he got done spooning the last bite into Jamie's mouth before cleaning him off. With one final affectionate kiss, the blue fairy type gathered the plate in his ribbons and plopped it in the sink before going back to Umbreon.

"Staring at me, my dear?" He asked with a warm smile.

"U-um... Well... It was just... With the baby and you making those faces... I just thought." She stuttered.

"What?" He asked, hurt and thinking she meant something bad.

"I thought it was just so sweet. It was adorable." She admitted through her blushing before going back to her meal.

The blue fairy type looked at her in surprise but he smiled and ate his food next to her. He had an obvious infatuation with her.

"N-not that I like you or anything! Don't get the wrong idea!" She quickly said.

Sylveon rolled his eyes. There was no way umbreon would admit to liking him anytime soon, not even to herself.

"Okie-dokey, sweetie." He chuckled, knowing better.

Paul watched the family scene quietly. He felt a bit envious of Dawn having such a loving family but then his mind wondered back to Maylene and his brother. They both loved him, even Maylene. However, Paul always felt more like he was intruding on them. Especially with a new baby on the way. He decided he was going to move out when he became champion to give the new family some more room. The teen then felt something bump his left leg. At his foot was his umbreon, rubbing up against his leg affectionately. She knew when he was troubled and could read him like a book. Then the blue sylveon rubbed up against his other leg before hugging them both with one of his ribbons. He affectionately kissed Paul's umbreon and she backed away, completely flustered. The sylveon giggled before nuzzling her and she just stood there blushing and growling, her fur fluffed. Paul had to chuckle at the pair, mildly surprised that his umbreon seemed to rather like the attention despite her shyness. Any other male would have gotten a shadow ball to the chest. He patted the blue sylveon on the head and he leaned into his hand, enjoying that he had approval from his new love's trainer.

"You know you're asking for trouble, right?" Paul asked the blue Sylveon.

The Blue Sylveon looked at her and smiled.

"I can handle it." He said.

"Don't count your blessings." The miracle Umbreon growled.

"Why must you hate me, love?" He asked.

"Why do you like me?" She asked.

"'cuz you're cute." the blue sylveon said with a grin.

"Cute?!" Umbreon squeaked.

"Yes, cute." Sylveon said.

"I- I ugh. I am not cute!" She stuttered.

"Yes you are. You even act cute." Sylveon giggled.

"Grr... Shut up!" She said, before eating her food.

Paul chuckled at the cute little banter. Again, any other male would have gotten hurt by now.

"I guess you'll survive." He chuckled, stroking the sylveon's head one last time before going back to his own food.

"Stop condoning this, Paul!" The miracle umbreon barked.

"You two are too cute not to end up being mates." Jolteon remarked.

"You two act like mates already." Flareon laughed.

"Like two alomomola in a pond." Vaporeon giggled.

"Hey!" the miracle umbreon shouted at the other eeveelutions.

The eeveelutions in the house had the behavior of a giant family group that would also be found in the wild with a family of eevees and eeveelutions. They all chuckled at the miracle umbreon. The young umbreon had never had such a family group before. She had always been fairly alone. She had her team but, she never had an actual family like this before. She felt just as awkward as Paul did, such a loving environment felt so alien to her. Yet, that didn't mean it was hated but she just never really seen such a family like this before. Before she was with Paul, her old home had abused her. Finally, one of the young children took her and put her in that back alleyway, hoping she'd make it. Instead, she laid back there, too depressed to move... her condition at the time was self inflicted because she felt more like she was better off dead. Paul had saved her and made her feel some worth. However, unlike this family environment, she was more used to a training environment where winning and strength mattered. She was taking a hostile attitude though.

"Hey, we don't do it to be mean, hon. We're just playing. No need to bite. We're all family here." Johanna's umbreon said, nudging the young umbreon affectionately.

"Yeah, don't mind blue here. He just likes you." Flareon said.

"Getting teased by us just means you're loved." Vaporeon said.

"Yeah, welcome to the family." Jolteon chuckled.

The miracle umbreon didn't know how to react to this. Suddenly, just like that, she was accepted by this pack of eeveelutions. The blue sylveon nudged her.

"I'm so happy my family likes you." He said.

She blushed but said nothing and decided to take things for what they were. She decided to tolerate the ribbons her new admirer had placed around her. She was kind of touched to receive such affection even though she didn't ask for it. She smiled a little at her new family.

"Would you please let go of me. Those ribbons freak me out." She said.

"But I loves you!" The blue sylveon said.

"Love me from a distance." The miracle Umbreon said.

"No." He said.

"So help me, I'll shadow ball your face." She said.

"You break my heart, sweetie." He said, retracting his ribbons.

* * *

Paul stuck around the family for a bit. The environment was a bit of a welcome change from what he's used to. It made him feel a bit relaxed and it assured Paul of his own humanity. People keep thinking that he's harsh to the point were people are either rude or are intimidated by him. Sometimes, he wonders if others are right: that maybe he isn't a good guy. But then he shoves these doubts under the rug and focuses on pokemon battles. Things had never been easy for Paul on an emotional level. He had gained more of a respect for Dawn when they were at the pokemon league that time he went up against ash. She treated him like a human and that was a thing he was thankful for: a person who would listen with an open mind. Open minds and a carefree environment... it was something Paul always wanted. It was a place like this and times like this that reminded Paul of the real reason why he wanted to achieve greatness. To show the world he was something more. To show everyone he was not who they thought. To have a place somewhere and maybe one day, he'd be living in an environment like this.

No, Paul doesn't scorn love even if it seems useless in a battle. Rather, it was the reason that's kept him going. The reason why he fights and trains hard was to gain approval of those around him. Maybe then he'll be seen for who he is. Maybe then, he could gain a family much like this one. He then noticed one of the twins had crawled over to his leg. Having been done with their meals, they've been allowed out of their chairs. Paul kind of froze and this didn't go unnoticed by Dawn. Noticing the awkwardness, the miracle umbreon approached and nuzzled him until she had veered the child away from Paul. Paul wasn't entirely sure around kids and his partner knew this. She decided to entertain the little one for awhile, letting him climb all over her. She loved babies anyway.

"Haven't been around kids a lot, have you?" Dawn asked him.

"Not really, no." He said.

"It's alright. I was just like you until they were born." Dawn said.

"I'm just afraid I might do something wrong to them." He said.

"You won't. Here." She said, grabbing Jamie and lifting him off of the umbreon.

"You can hold him. He won't cry. He likes to stand in laps." She said.

Paul held the child and they both looked at each other awkwardly, neither one knowing what to make of each other. Paul held the boy by the waist in his lap, holding him upright in the standing position Dawn showed him. Jamie started playing with Paul's hair. Dawn kept an eye on the two, giggling at how awkward Paul was. Paul managed a small smile until his hair got yanked a little too hard. However, he gently pulled it from the child's grasp. Jamie laughed at him and Paul kinda smirked at the kid. Maybe, just maybe he could pull off being a good uncle. Suddenly an awful smell filled the air.

"Uh oh! Smells like someone needs a diaper change." Dawn said, taking the kid.

"Both of them do." Johanna said.

Sylveon picked up Charlie.

"You want to learn how?" Dawn asked Paul.

"Umm... Sure." He said.

She originally meant it as a joke but was kind of happy he agreed... although Paul sure was questioning this decision by the time he was faced with this task.

"Are you alright, Paul?" Dawn asked.

"What on earth do you feed these kids?" Paul asked, gagging.

"Hahahahaha! I was like that, too!" Dawn giggled.

She then showed him how to change a diaper while trying not to laugh at Paul's poor gag reflex. It was cute to see him try though. He was putting in an honest effort.

"There, was that so bad?" Dawn asked.

"Not really." He said.

"Why did you agree to this? I originally meant it as a joke." Dawn said.

"I'm going to be an uncle soon. So I figured I could use the practice." He said.

"Oh. Congratulations! I'm so happy to hear that. I bet you'll be a great uncle." She said.

"Really?" Paul asked.

Dawn was taken aback by Paul's uncertainty. It was in that moment, she saw a little more of him. She smiled, happy to know that Paul was honestly trying to make an effort like this.

"I know you will." She said with a reassuring smile.

Paul carried Jamie as they both walked back downstairs, the kid relaxed and sucking on the collar of his jacket.

"...Thank you." Paul said.

* * *

**Sorry for not posting in a long time! I was just graduating at the start of this. So I was going through major changes in my life. I got to go now. I'm going swimming today.**


	6. Training Environment

**Okay, Paul seemed a bit wimpy but I'll give you guys my backstory of his.**

* * *

Training was something Paul always felt he was good at. He was in the back yard of Dawn's house, training his umbreon. She too, loved training. She lived to please her master and she loved Paul more than anything. He was her life, literally. If it wasn't for him, she would have given up on her own life. The time she spent recovering in his room took her long because, for awhile, she didn't really want to recover. No family, no friends, no strength, and no love, she was ready to just let her own life slip away. She waited for her only friend, that little boy, to come back but he never did. She knew he did it to save her but she thought that just maybe they could run away together. However, such a thing was impossible for him. She knew that he'd be proud to see how far she has come and also thankful that Paul had taken her in. With Paul, she was an unstoppable force.

Paul was reminded of a time when he was like her. The more time he spent with the pokemon when she was healing, the more he related to her. He remembered his mother; a woman who was so frail and sickly. Yet, she did everything in her power to keep Paul happy. His father had walked out on them when he was three. When he turned seven, his mother's health took a turn for the worst. She died a week after he turned eight. Before then, Paul was a kind boy, always happy to help others, willing to share all the time, and he had plenty of friends. One of the reasons why he despised Ash was because, well, he reminded him of what he used to be and also... whom he wished he still was even though Paul himself would never drop his pride enough to admit it.

Paul blamed himself for their father walking out on them. He thought that maybe everyone else would have been happier without him. The time his mother died was when Reggie decided to take Paul with him on his pokemon journeys. Paul had been a little happier then. He was glad to be with his brother all that time. Reggie was and still is his hero. Reggie was probably the strongest man in the world because, despite all the hell that he's been through, he still kept smiling. He still kept his heart.

However, the grief that was in Paul's heart at the time had corrupted him a bit more. He was blindsided, always idolizing his brother. Thinking how Reggie was practically undefeatable. Until, that is, the battle frontier. For the first time, Paul had watched his hero, his idol, his world, get easily taken down. His whole team was ko'd with one hit by one pokemon. Paul was a bit disheartened but he figured everyone lost, right? So he figured his brother would just get stronger and press on, becoming the world's greatest pokemon master. However, instead, Reggie suddenly just stopped his journey after that and became a pokemon breeder. He also questioned himself after what Brandon had said. After that, something in Paul shifted and bent completely out of shape, turning him into a cold and callous trainer. He was so focused on power from then on.

This thought kept him going. He had grown a disdain for himself so much at the time that he figured the only way he could ever improve his life was just by sheer power. For awhile, he had such an arrogance and even now, he admits that it was easier to just seem heartless to everyone while still trying to find himself. For awhile, he never cared about how his pokemon felt. For awhile, he'd train them without letting them rest much. He was so caught up in trying to find power as a means to somehow better himself that he completely lost his heart. So when he met Ash and his friends, he slowly started seeing himself. He slowly started to see what he'd been doing. However, for awhile, Ash did cause Paul a lot of frustration. Sometimes, this frustration would cause Paul to even beat himself up. He even trained a full twenty-four hours without resting himself or his pokemon.

Dawn especially aggravated him for awhile. The way she yelled at him somehow struck him harder than anyone else even though he'd never show it. It would slowly eat at him. She was a key factor in changing him. At first, he even liked getting her irritated with him. He was amused by her irritability. However, the longer he went through his Sinnoh League journey with Ash as his rival, the more Paul questioned himself. The more he started paying some attention to his own qualities as a human. Slowly, he lost his arrogance as time went on. Slowly, he started to hate himself more than ever. It was when Dawn started showing him some kindness at the pokemon league that he started to get more of a handle of who he really was and what he really wanted: he wanted everyone to treat him the same way Dawn did that day. After the Sinnoh league, he finally came to terms as to who he wanted to be as a person. However, for awhile, the way he had gotten treated after realizing the fault in himself did cause him to go a little off the deep end some days. If it wasn't for the fact that Reggie would be devastated beyond all belief, Paul would have offed himself. After awhile, he simply decided to try and show everyone the person he could truly be and that didn't really come to full reality until he met his umbreon. Because of her, Paul finally felt more sure of himself as a person; she was his living proof that even an outcast like him had a heart.

"Umbreon, Shadow claw!" Paul shouted.

She used shadow claw against weavile. Weavile dodged and retaliated with his own shadow claw but Umbreon dodged and hit him with her own. She almost knocked him out with that one hit. The shows how much stronger the umbreon had gotten. Weavile used to be the fastest on the team but the young umbreon was capable of outrunning him any day of the week. She then used quick attack and had knocked out her mentor.

"Good job, girl. Are you alright, weavile?" Paul called.

Weavile weakly gave thumbs up while lying on his back. Paul walked up to weavile and gave him a potion. Weavile got back up and sat on the porch. Paul then trained the umbreon against all his team until they were all practically defeated by her. She was Paul's pride and joy, the strongest, fastest, and smartest of his team. Not even electivire could beat her. Only his torterra was capable of beating her. She finally went up against torterra, nearly beating him this time. However, in the end, the giant pokemon had triumphed over her. She weakly got up after Paul gave her an oran berry, her whole body exhausted. She walked back to the porch to suddenly feel the blue sylveon's ribbons around her.

"You were amazing, darling!" He said, nuzzling her.

"You mind?" She said, weakly.

"Nope." He giggled, letting her go.

She staggered a bit and he caught her, supporting her with his side.

"Oopsies! Are you alright, sweetie?" He asked.

"Just... tired." She said.

"Well let's get you some supper and then off to bed." The blue sylveon said, helping her inside.

Paul prepared her meal. It was a mix of oran, sitrus, lum, and some moo moo milk. It's a bit of an energy shake that helps his pokemon relax and recover a bit faster after battles. The oran and sitrus not only restore energy but also provide some painkiller, too. The lum will also ease pain and any potential sores that could develop into poison or burns as well as eliminate severe fatigue.

"Warm or chilled?" Paul asked her.

"Chilled..." She muttered.

"Okay." Paul said, using frozen berries.

Paul blended the berries and then spiced the mix up with a pinap berry; umbreon's favorite. Paul placed the smoothied meal in front of her and she sucked it right up, enjoying the coolness of it after a long battle. A little more perked up, she groomed herself.

"Can I help, hon?" The blue sylveon asked.

She nearly put him off but then thought better of it.

"Fine." She said, cleaning her paws as Paul cleaned her dish and tended to his other pokemon.

The blue sylveon was overjoyed and happily groomed his love. He licked between her ears and behind them, getting the back of her neck. She was too tired to really be irritated with his affection and she also enjoyed the attention. It's just that his feminine appearance really made the umbreon question her own sexuality. However, he is male. He smells male and his sexuality is clearly for females. So technically, there's nothing wrong with her attraction for the girly male. Trying to tell her this though is not as easy. She started nodding off as he continued. The blue sylveon eventually helped her to one of the many beds lying around the house and continued to groom his love interest there.

Paul normally has his umbreon sleep with him but seeing the sylveon adamantly grooming her, he decided to let her sleep with him. He went upstairs to turn in where he saw Dawn reading to the babies. He watched for awhile in the doorway, smiled at the sight before going into the guest room to fall asleep.

Meanwhile, the umbreon noticed that she was on a soft cusion, a weight next to her side. She awoke to see her admirer right next to her. Feeling too tired to berate him and also enjoying the closeness at the same time, she just stared at him. She felt clean on her back, which was a feeling that she usually never feels unless Paul bathes her. She rested her head back down and curled up, deciding to tolerate the intimacy. She then felt him shift next to her, his ribbons wrapped around her and he rested his head over her neck, his body curled around hers. Oddly feeling more secure, she fell asleep, wondering about what she should feel for the male next to her.

* * *

**I made this chapter mainly to fill in some back story. Paul and Dawn leave tomorrow.**


	7. Returned and Lost

**Hey guys... I decided to write another chapter. I've been having horrible times keeping up with classes lately and my anxiety has been making it a harsh time.**

* * *

The miracle umbreon woke up a few hours before sunrise to see the blue sylveon still happily asleep next to her. She squirmed to get away from him but his ribbons were tangled around her body, causing her to panic. The blue sylveon woke up and quickly removed his ribbons, smiling at her sheepishly. She glared at him and bit one of his ribbons. He yelped before she bolted up the stairs, fluffed up from the encounter. She paced in the guest room, angrily. She was angry at sylveon for his advances, angry at Dawn and Paul's attraction for each other, angry at herself for kind of liking them, angry at herself for her pride, angry at herself for biting him, and she was more angry at herself than anything. Paul could hear her and saw her and how upset she was. She was practically lighting up the room with her light rings.

"Hey." He said to get her attention.

She looked back up at him. He patted the bed next to him and she hopped on to the bed, laying her head on his stomach. He patted her head and she buried her face into his stomach, starting to cry. Paul knew her problem and chuckled.

"I don't see why you're having so much difficulty: you simply just like the sylveon. It's not that big of a deal." Paul said.

She shook her head furiously. Paul rolled his eyes, knowing that she was never going to lose her pride and admit it. She was much like him in this way and it made Paul a little sad to see it.

"You're taking after me a little too much, girl. Please don't. It's not easy to be like me, trust me. I should know." Paul said, running his hand up and down her back.

She looked back at him.

"I thought being like you was a good thing..." She said.

The blue sylveon peaked in. He accidentally caused the door to squeak. The miracle umbreon caught site of him. She looked at Paul.

"Go on." Paul urged her.

"I don't mean to interrupt. I'll... I'll leave you two alone..." He said, sounding a little hurt.

The miracle umbreon hopped off the bed and walked over to him. She followed him into the hallway.

"What are you doing here?" She asked.

"I... I came to apologize." The blue sylveon said, looking down in shame.

"What for?" She asked.

"For um... having you sleep next to me. I'm sorry if I'm being a little too... fast. I can leave you alone if you'd like." He said, turning to leave.

She grabbed his tail gently. He looked back at her.

"No... I'm sorry for biting you. I just panicked because I was a bit tangled in your ribbons and I'm also just not used to being so close to other pokemon like that. It's just a bit new and scary for me. I kind of... always think that maybe a pokemon who's too nice to me is trying to... I dunno, take advantage of me or something. I did not really have an easy life growing up. I'm just... scared." She said, trembling a bit.

This was the first time she was ever forward with another pokemon in her life. However, she was trying to do as Paul said and not try to be like him. So for the first time in her life, she let go of her pride to talk with him. She looked down at the floor to avert her eyes. She still wasn't going to admit that the fact that he's very feminine puts her off but then again, it's not doing that now. She expected him to walk off or something but instead, he walked back over to her and nuzzled her.

"I'd never use or hurt you, darling." He said as he gently nuzzled her.

The miracle umbreon didn't entirely know what to do or say. She just sat there and allowed him to affectionately nuzzle and embrace her without getting angry or flustered. However, she still couldn't swallow her pride to nuzzle or groom him back even though a voice in her head screamed at her to return the affection. But, the blue sylveon was right: he was going too fast for her.

"Just... Stop being so fast. I'm not used to this." She said sheepishly.

"Whatever you'd like, my dear." He said, happily rubbing his cheek against hers.

This time, he was rubbing his cheek against hers to exchange scents: it is a courting scent. Eeveelutions mate for life and scenting each other was part of their nature.

"C-careful! I do secrete a poison from my skin from time to time and I can't always control it." She said.

"Poison me by all means, as long as it makes you mine." He said.

She blushed but didn't hesitate any longer in exchanging scents with him.

* * *

It was morning and Dawn awoke to see her blue sylveon snuggled on the couch next to the miracle umbreon. She patted him and noticed his ears were a little feverish. He looked up at her and smiled a little too cheery even for him. He staggered to his paws and flopped off of the couch. Dawn and the miracle umbreon looked at him, alarmed.

"Don't worry, honnies! I'm feelin' fantabulous." He giggled, as he got to his feet.

"Dad... something is wrong with my sylveon." Dawn said, worried.

He came into the living room and noted the eeveelution was a staggering and giggling mess. He face palmed and laughed.

"He's fine. It seems that he's just experiencing a minor poison effect. He's just the human equivalent of being drunk right now." He chuckled.

"Poison effect? From what?!" Dawn asked.

"Umbreons secrete a poisonous sweat as a defense and also when they exchange scents while courting a mate. Don't worry too much, he'll just be a little too happy and ditzy for the morning." He laughed.

"Oh... wait, does that mean that they, uh, well, you know!" Dawn said, growing flustered.

"No, they're simply courting. Eeveelutions mate for life. Think of it as a way of dating." Dan said.

Paul came downstairs and noticed the intoxicated Sylveon and his flustered Umbreon.

"Should I give him something?" Dawn asked.

"No. It may ruin things. Let him endure. He'll be okay when the noon time comes around." Dan said.

"What's going on?" Paul asked.

"According to Dan, when eeveelutions are courting each other, they exchange scents. However, and umbreon has their scent also infused with a weak poison. In other words, Sylveon is literally drunk and in love... that's kind of funny now that I put it that way." Dawn giggled.

Paul blinked and then laughed. Noticing Paul's mirth, Sylveon drunkenly rubbed against his legs, almost causing him to trip. Paul knelt down to the feminine male.

"Careful there, boy. You're going to trip someone." Paul chuckled, patting him.

The sylveon purred and then flopped over onto his back and exposing his belly to Paul.

"Can you rub my belly and tell me I'm pretty?" The drunk sylveon asked.

The miracle umbreon then giggled. That was extreme even for the bubbly feminine male. Paul hesitantly rubbed his belly and the drunk sylveon purred, drool dribbling out of the corner of his mouth. The blue sylveon loved his belly rubs but was usually too self conscious to flip over and let anyone see his full frontal area. This was usually his equivalent of being naked. The miracle umbreon blushed as well as laughed at the sight. It was even more hilarious that Paul was being a little awkward about it, too. Dawn giggled at the sight. That morning was certainly interesting!

* * *

By the time noon came around, the blue sylveon was sober again and now immune to the poison his miracle umbreon secretes. The two trainers had packed up and were on there way out of town together. Paul was walking with Dawn silently. Paul stared at his female companion briefly. He suddenly realized why Dawn's opinion affected him more than anyone else's: he truly did care for this girl. He at first shrugged it off as a silly little crush, something Paul usually snuffs out when he realizes how useless it is but there was no point in denying it anymore: he had it bad for the top coordinator. She was headed off to another town to judge a contest and he was going to train. Paul and Dawn soon came to a split in the path.

"I guess this is where we leave." Dawn said, a little saddened at the thought.

"Yeah." Paul said, quite a bit down himself.

Paul then grabbed Dawn's hand, got down on one knee, and kissed it. Paul is usually not one for this corny love stuff but he remembered his mom was a sucker for things like that. Lo and behold, Dawn was surprised but also rather charmed.

"Thank you... I had a nice time." Paul said, looking her in the eyes, his dark cobalt eyes pouring all the emotion he had into hers.

However... it was too bad that at this time, Dawn did not feel the same. However, she knew he was trying and she had to admit, although he had no obvious idea, he was adorable at his attempts. Paul was more awkward when you got to know him more. It was cute. But these two were only kids, just barely in junior high. Dawn's mind was not on a relationship, especially with Paul. Even she could see he had a lot of maturing to do and she did, too, whether she'd admit that to herself or not. Also... she was not brave enough to suffer the social controversy even if having the miracle umbreon clears his name somewhat. Paul was still despised by many... and so because of this primarily, Dawn wasn't going to let herself fall for him. Even a child like Dawn can have cruel reasoning behind her reasons.

"I know. Stay safe, alright?" Dawn said, withdrawing her hand and quickly walking away, not wanting to give him any more chances.

However, should she have stayed longer, she probably would have fallen for him then and there and that scared her more than anything. She didn't even know how he and her would work as a couple. Paul, meanwhile, looked on in despair, knowing full well that she doesn't return his feelings. For the first time, right then and there, the miracle umbreon saw Paul do something she never even thought he was capable of: he was crying. It was brief, and only a few tears and a pained look appeared on his face. She stood up on her hind legs and licked them away. She stared after Dawn and though she was upset about her hurting Paul, she knew she couldn't hold any contempt towards her... Never shame a girl for not returning the feelings, no matter how bad he may have it for her.

But... to rub salt in this wound, the next week, it was on the media that her and Kenny were dating.

* * *

**Ouch! Poor Paul!**


	8. New Life and New Leaf

**Poor Paul having to endure a burn! Not exactly a good move on Dawn's part. She could have let him down more easily but... it could have been worse, too.**

* * *

Paul had decided to pack up and start a big journey after that fiasco with Dawn. He couldn't bare to see her: it hurt him a lot. Unfortunately for the miracle umbreon and the blue sylveon, this meant that they couldn't maintain their courting and so, with heavy hearts, they had no choice but to stay alongside their trainers, leaving their bonding ritual incomplete. However, both of them will still always long for each other but, they're not necessarily mates for life.

Kenny and Dawn were always on tv, too. They were known as 'Sinnoh's cutest couple'. Paul constantly avoided huge cities because of the media around them. He left his old team with Reggie, deciding to start on a new team to train up against Cynthia one day. He knew now that he was in no position to become champion. However, he did stay around long enough to meet his niece, Angel. Even with a new baby to keep everyone busy, Reggie noticed how off Paul seemed and even Maylene could see that there was a problem. Reggie was the one who suggested to Paul to go train in the Unova and Kalos regions. Met with little argument, Paul agreed and geared up for his new journey to the Unova region where he was to begin a new life and a new team with his miracle umbreon at his side. To makes the regions more ideal: neither of them held contests. In other words: Kenny and Dawn were least likely to show up in either of them.

So Paul found himself on the plane to Unova. Though nervous, he was also excited, too. None of these regions knew him: he had no reputation in either of them, especially with them being so busy on the trouble involving Team Plasma and Team Flare. Here in these regions, he could redeem his tainted reputation. Here in these regions, he could be the hero for once.

* * *

"Now arriving at Nuvema Town. Enjoy your stay at Unova!" A voice over the speaker said.

Paul had gotten on a boat to meet Professor Juniper here. Professor Rowan put in a good word for him here and so professor Juniper was going to give him a pokemon. Paul stretched and got up from the bed he had been resting in while listening to his ipod to the band, Steam Powered Girafarig. Not a bad band but one of the least likely bands anyone would expect someone like Paul to be listening to. Paul left the boat and stepped into the small town of Nuvema town. It was even smaller than Twinleaf, which Paul rather liked. He liked that this place was nothing like Sinnoh. Not even the pokemon will be the same. He read the map he was given and soon, he found himself in front of the lab. He was about to open the door when.

*Crash*

Paul didn't know what or who had hit him but they hit him hard.

"S-sorry!" A girl said.

Paul looked up to see a blonde girl in her late teens sporting red rimmed glasses, an orange jacket, and a big green hat. She helped Paul up and he recognized her as a girl who was supposed to meet him at the dock.

"You must be Bianca." Paul said.

"...and you're Paul! Crap! I'm so sorry for being late!" Bianca said, bowing to him.

"It's fine. I got here on my own just fine." Paul said.

"Okay... Um... Would you like me to show you around?" She asked, sheepishly.

Bianca honestly just wanted to make it look like she took time to go get him. Normally, Paul did not have the patience for this but he decided to humor this girl. Besides: he kind of wanted to look around anyway. It wasn't like he was in a big hurry, either. So he nodded and Bianca happily grabbed his hand and led him around the small town. Besides, he wanted to try and change his ways. This didn't mean he was going to be a pushover but he was going to try just about anything to be better known.

"This over here is my best friend, Cheren's, house. Or, well, it was before he moved to another city to take over the normal type gym. You should totally go battle him, by the way! He's really strong!" Bianca said.

"I'll keep him in mind, thank you." Paul said.

Then, Bianca pulled him to a house across the street.

"This is the home of Hilda White! The hero of Unova! And also, my bestest bestest friend in the whole wide world!" Bianca said.

"Isn't this where I'm staying?" Paul asked, bewildered that he was going to be living under the roof with someone famous.

"Yes it is! Mrs. White agreed to look after you while you're here if I'm not mistaken. Hilda is off studying abroad though. But her mom is looking after her pokemon, including Reshiram! I can introduce you if you want." Bianca said.

"Please, by all means." Paul said.

"Okay! This way!" Bianca said, cheerfully pulling him along with her.

Bianca knocked on the door and the door was opened by a mienshao.

"Hey, Mimi! Is mom home?" Bianca asked.

The mienshao nodded and then Mrs. White came up behind her.

"Oh hello Bianca." She said.

"Mrs. White, meet Paul! He's the boy you'll be looking after." Bianca said with a smile.

Mrs. White gave him a friendly smile and shook his hand.

"It's a pleasure to finally meet you, Paul." She said.

"Yeah, likewise." He said politely.

"Come on in, I'll help you get settled." Mrs. White said.

* * *

Dawn was having a pleasant time in the limelight, with her lopbunny's modeling career, her title as top coordinator, and the attention she's getting with Kenny at her side. Now, no, she's not dating Kenny just because of the attention but she did have genuine feelings for him. How could she say no to her childhood friend? However, Kenny was possessive and rarely let Dawn out of his sight. This was okay, at first.

However, even though she didn't think much of this behavior at the time, little does she know that this behavior will get worse... Kenny has always been one to use a little too much power to accomplish things. It will be no different here. However, for now, nothing seems wrong with any of this. They were just kids, after all, nothing will ever be perfect... or so Dawn keeps assuring herself this. They were both too young to understand how love truly works. Kenny may not ever understand if he keeps this up.

* * *

Paul was getting settled into the guest room that was his room. It had a bathroom in it, too. It's not Hilda's old room, hers was across the hall. Her room was bigger and had a very nice bathroom, too. Mrs. White always dreamt of having two children but, her husband died long ago. She's still gone on fine with raising her daughter alone. Mrs. White was preparing some lunch downstairs while Paul was assessing the room: it had a blue theme. The curtains were a light blue, the bed had a dark blue comforter, there was even a computer and a desk off to the corner, the walls had two paintings: one was a map, while the other was of a zorua playing with a celebi. The miracle umbreon made herself comfortable on the bed while Paul logged onto the computer to set up a login for himself on it. A squeak at the door caught the miracle umbreon's attention.

She looked to see an oshawatt. It looked at her, alarmed, and then it ran off. The umbreon got up and stretched before hopping off the bed to go and meet the little one. She saw the little one down the hall and it ran downstairs. Chuckling, the umbreon walked after it to find it downstairs. It yelped before running out the back door and hiding behind a Samurott out the back door. The miracle umbreon went out the back door, deciding to get acquainted with the resident pokemon.

"Mom! She's scary!" The oshawatt said, clinging to the samurott.

"Relax, child. I don't bite." The miracle umbreon said.

"Hun, you're being rude to her. Go say hello to our guest. You know I wouldn't stand for her to be around if she was bad." The samurott said, nudging her son.

She shyly walked up to her.

"Hi." She said.

The umbreon chuckled.

"How old are you, child?" The umbreon asked.

"Oh she hatched about a week ago." The samurott said.

"Wow! You're still a baby." The umbreon said.

She blushed and smiled. The young oshawatt had never seen an umbreon in her life, so it's not that she's a coward or anything, she just has a shy nature. In no time flat, the umbreon found herself playing with the young hatchling. She pinned him down and nuzzled her. She giggled at the contact. The umbreon had always been a sucker for babies of all kinds. The oshawatt was no exception to her love of children. Paul then noticed them outside. He, too, decided to meet the team that saved Unova. He walked downstairs.

"Hey, Mrs. White, may I meet the team?" Paul asked.

"Sure! I'll get everyone out, too!" She said, retrieving some pokeballs from a box on the shelf.

"You only keep some of them out?" Paul asked.

"Well yeah, especially Reshiram! We don't want her out too often but, usually at night, I let her go off to fly and then she comes back and sleeps all day in her ball." Mrs. White said.

Paul followed her outside where she released all of the pokemon. In the team was the samurott, a zebstrika, a stoutland, a panpour, a spring sawsbuck, and a mienshao. Finally, reshiram was released and her sheer size intimidated Paul.

"Everyone, meet Paul and his umbreon. They're going to be staying in my charge while he's here. Make them feel welcome! Paul wanted to meet you." She said.

They all greeted him. Paul was particularly curious about the samurott. He allowed her to sniff his hand and after she was satisfied with the smell of his hand, he then proceeded to stroke her cheek.

"Sammy loves having her neck scratched." Mrs. White said.

So Paul did as she said and Sammy groaned in pleasure as Paul did. He smiled up at the pokemon. Suddenly, Reshiram craned her head down. Paul fell backwards in surprise but she continued to inspect him. She then seemed pleased with him.

"Your intentions are true. I trust you." She said.

"She talks?!" Paul said in surprise.

"Telepathically, yes. My partner calls me Shiram." She said.

"All of Hilda's pokemon have something to do with their original names. Mimi is the Mienshao, Striker is the zebstrika, Stoutly is the stoutland, Pourus is the panpour, Bucky is the Sawsbuck, and Sammy is the samurott. You already know Shiram." She said.

The oshawott suddenly grabbed Paul's leg.

"What about this little one?" Paul asked.

"I'm actually looking to find her a good home. If you compare her with another oshawatt, she's actually shiny. However, you can barely tell with her. The only obvious indicator is the pink nose. Her fur is also more of a neon blue rather than the regular color and her ears and flippers are more of a dark teal in color. So I can't just give her away to anyone." She said.

Paul knelt down to the pokemon and held his hand out to it. Though shy, at first, she allowed Paul to pick her up. Paul checked his pokedex as he held the pokemon in his arms.

"It knows airslash and night slash already?" Paul said, bewildered.

"Yep. Sammy already knew night slash while the daddy, another Samurott, knew night slash. She knows some powerful moves for a little girl." Mrs. White said.

The oshawatt nuzzled Paul. Paul chuckled and patted the affectionate baby pokemon.

"She really seems to love you, Paul. I've never seen her act like that before with anyone." Mrs. White said

Paul smiled at this fact. He decided that fate has made it so he could keep this one.

"Mrs. White, is it too soon to ask if I could keep her?" Paul asked.

The oshawott was ecstatic with the thought and looked up at Mrs. White with a pleading look. She looked at them both and the miracle umbreon nuzzled the oshawott to make the point. She sighed and laughed.

"How can I tell any of you no? Okay, if you promise to take good care of her." She said.

"Of course I will, Mrs. White! Thank you!" Paul said, more enthused than normal.

His enthusiasm even startled Mrs. White and Bianca. Paul blushed but the miracle umbreon smiled and nudged him, happy to see her trainer loosening up. He chuckled and patted her head. He took a ball out and offered it to the young oshawott. She happily nudged it with her forehead and she disappeared within, the ball didn't even wiggle in protest as it gave one final glow before settling to normal.

* * *

Paul and Bianca finally left for the lab after having supper with Mrs. White. They were about to enter when Bianca decided to speak up.

"Thank you for letting me show you around. I'd rather be late with bringing you here than be late in getting you. Professor Juniper has been kind of... doubting me lately. So I'm glad you didn't just barge in there." She said.

"Yeah, no problem." Paul said.

"There you two are." Juniper said.

"Sorry. I wanted to look around the town for a bit." Paul said before Bianca could speak.

"Ehehe! Yeah. I also helped him get settled with Mrs. White, too." Bianca said.

"Okay, good. I was worried you would have gotten lost out there, Paul." Professor Juniper said.

"Nah. I got around fine, thanks to Bianca." He said.

Paul wasn't used to lying for a good cause but he didn't want to get Bianca into trouble. Juniper smiled in approval. She then grabbed three pokeballs.

"I got these three in from the Kalos region, actually. I want you to have one, Paul." She said.

"Are you sure?" Paul asked, surprised to be getting another team member so soon.

"Yes I am." She said before releasing all three.

Paul looked at all three of them in wonder. He took out his pokedex and looked at chespin first. The chespin looked at him and was automatically afraid of him. It hid behind professor Juniper's leg.

"Please don't pick me! You're scary!" She whimpered.

"My trainer isn't all that bad. He saved my life." The miracle umbreon told her.

"I don't trust dark types." She said.

The miracle umbreon rolled her eyes and Paul looked at her. She shook her head. They then looked at the froakie. He glared at Paul.

"I'm not listening to the purple haired wonder, even with the hot chick. Hey, baby. How have you been?" He said, with a wink.

"Ugh! Paul, please don't pick this one!" She said, shaking her head furiously.

"Not him, huh?" Paul asked.

She shook her head furiously.

So Paul looked at the fenniken. Never before would Paul had thought this would be the one he'd be thinking of picking but he decided to see what the miracle umbreon thought of her. She walked up to the young fenniken.

"Hello." The fennekin greeted.

"Hi." The miracle umbreon said.

"So he saved your life?" She asked.

The miracle umbreon nodded.

"I was close to death when he found me. You see, I was abandoned when I was just a kit. I thought no one loved me and so I just gave up. Nothing could move me no matter how hungry or thirsty I got. Not even bad weather motivated me enough to find shelter. I wanted to die. Then Paul's brother, Reggie found me when I fell asleep for what I thought would be the last time I'd ever sleep. So he took me to a pokecenter only to be told to just let me die. So he brought me home to just keep me out of the rain and off the streets. Paul then saw me and rather than let me die, he took me up to his room and gave me all kinds of remedies. He didn't give up on me at all. I still wanted to give up even when I woke up but Paul didn't. He never gave up on me and he helped me walk when I couldn't. When I wouldn't eat, he'd find a way to get me to eat. Eventually, I regained my will and I started to heal. He even trained me to be one of his strongest pokemon he had ever owned. I am proud to be his partner." The umbreon said with a proud smile.

The chespin loosened her grip around Juniper's leg and the froakie looked up at Paul in wonder. The fennekin smiled and walked up to Paul. He knelt down and petted her.

"I will go with him if he'll have me." She said, nuzzling his hand.

"Well… maybe I could go with him if he wants." Chespin said.

"I guess his purple hair kind of looks bad ass on him. I can go with him if you don't mind, babe." The froakie said with a wink and smile.

"Sorry, guys but, I think Paul has made his choice." The miracle umbreon said with a smile.

"I think this fire type here will do just fine." Paul said.

"Good choice. Fennekin will be a great partner for you!" Juniper said.

The old Paul would have taken froakie regardless of anyone's opinion, even the pokemon himself. But now, Paul knew he had to keep everyone's best interests in mind in order to succeed. However, this fennekin seemed strong. She nuzzled his hand and loved him already. He smiled and picked her up.

"Welcome to the team, fennekin." He said as Juniper gave him a pokeball.

The miracle umbreon couldn't help but notice that Paul had taken up smiling more. While she knew her partner usually, she didn't know if it was a good thing or a bad thing that he was finding a bit more merit in things. It worried her. He was trying too hard to keep happy it seems but, it was something she knew he was doing to get over Dawn.

* * *

So Paul had a brand new Fennekin and Oshawott to train. He had his umbreon help train them for the next few weeks to bring them up to strength. No surprise, they had both fully evolved already. He has already gained a few badges and he was on his way to battle Cheren, having wanting to save Cheren for one of the last he'd battle. Paul had also gained a female liepard, a female zebstrika, and finally, a female hydreigon. Paul never realized until later that he had an all female team. Not that he minded at all. They were a strong bunch and a nice group of females that got along nicely. However, trouble started when breeding season came around.

Breeding season was usually something that was unnoticeable in the Sinnoh region because they didn't have four seasons. However, the Unova region has all seasons and the breeding season is particularly prominent in the late fall. Paul's whole team was in heat, much to his chagrin. None of them planned on breeding, mind you. However, it is not uncommon for males to become rogue when the mating season comes around, having to be so hormonally charged that nothing except mating is on their mind. At the beginning of the year is when the rogue males are most active. These males were rather easy to take out because they already have weakened themselves with nothing but mating on their mind.

Then there were dangerously strong males that would venture into territory where they know there are weaker pokemon. In fact, sometimes they'll take on humans and even other males for their own pleasure. One in particular has had its eye on Paul's team. Paul practically had a harem but, this male knew that he couldn't take all of them even with his powers. He had his eye on the miracle umbreon for quite some time. Though he knew of her power, the only thing his mind was one was the area under her tail. Her scent intoxicated him most and he knew that one way or another, he was going to find a way under that tail... and he does, whether she likes it or not.

* * *

**Uh oh! Anyway, I kind of already originally planned for this to turn dark anyway. I never realized how seemingly light and carefree it was until now. Kind of funny how a story develops like this but I'm attached to what I went for. Sorry if this is getting too dark if your squeamish but in case you didn't get the hint: there is going to be rape and abuse in this. This is meant to be about hardships and hope. How love gives you the strength to move on. I also gained some balls to do M rated stories in the time I've been into college. Sorry if you were hoping it would stay at a T rating.**


	9. Tragedy and Hope

**WARNING! THIS CHAPTER GETS HORRIBLY DARK! CONTAINS: RAPE AND ABUSE!**

**Don't worry, guys. The worst of it happens here... I think. If I find the time, I may have a lemon in here but, not right now.**

* * *

The night was unusually cold but Paul came prepared with a warm sleeping bag and a nice tent. He had his miracle umbreon out. Paul invited her inside the tent but she was more comfortable laying outside next to the fire with her scarf around her neck. The scarf was a gift for her from Mrs. White because she knew that the umbreon wasn't too fond of her ball. She was grateful for the added warmth. It was mating season and the hormones all around were high. Half of Paul's team were also in heat.

Even the female umbreon craved a mate but, she only craved the blue sylveon to relieve the itch under her tail. She finally accepted the fact that she loved the blue sylveon but... she accepted that thought too little too late. She looked up at the night, wondering if her blue fairy was looking up at the same sky.

Meanwhile, Dawn wasn't having an easy time. She was doing all she could to stay with Kenny and, don't worry, he wasn't going to let her leave him but, the way he's been keeping has been making her feel inadequate. She felt like she couldn't count on him to help her with some of her anxieties about being the top coordinator. She's been doing contest battles just fine but, her pokemon knew she wasn't happy. Not anymore at least. So after this years contests of going from region to region just trying contests out, she decided to go into the modeling business since she had been gaining so many compliments about her and her lopbunny. But, that didn't make her feel any better. She kept tearing herself down, thinking she was the problem in her relationship with Kenny and rather than tell her otherwise, he enforced it. Kenny found he could control her better this way. He wasn't going to lose his DD to anyone.

Back with the miracle umbreon, she was lying on the ground when she saw a flash of familiar blue. She got up and followed where the flash of blue went. She suddenly heard the sweet call of her love.

"Hey, sweet baby." He said.

She gasped and ran ahead into the trees, further and further from the camp with Paul and his pokemon. She then came into a clearing where she saw her old love. She joyously ran towards him and tackled him. She nuzzled and licked her old love and he returned her affection. But then, where was Dawn? How was the fairy type here and right when she was going to question him, suddenly, the blue sylveon's eyes glowed blood red and the next thing the miracle umbreon knew, she was pinned down by her assailant.

"Let go of me!" She screeched.

"You're mine." The dark type growled as he straddled his new captive.

"Get off!" She snarled, trying to hit him with a shadow claw.

"Knock it off, you stupid female!" He snarled before hitting her with a rock smash.

The male was equal in strength to her but using a fighting move point blank in the face nearly knocked her out completely. The male took advantage of her daze and penetrated her before she could do anything else. She fought and cried out as he painfully plunged his member into her with blood being the only lubrication. He held his temporary mate by the scruff using his mouth while he kept her hind quarters up using his front paws as he mated her from behind. The umbreon had never mated in her life and the new experience was horribly painful.

"HELP! PAAAAAAAAAUUL! PAAAAAAAUL!" She roared in horror.

The zoroark had him under a brief hullicination though. Paul himself was having a dream about Dawn. When he woke up from it, he looked down to see his pants wet. He blushed because, while his brother did give him 'the starlies and the combees talk' about a year ago, he never expected he'd be already having wet dreams. Especially ones that vivid. How the heck did he even have one that vivid? He's never had sex before nor had he even seen porn but, he somehow he knew exactly what he was doing. Paul got out of his tent to go cool off by the nearby stream. He waded in it, trying to make these weird sensations go away. He blushed as he remembered just about every detail of her face. How the heck did that happen? Suddenly, he heard a distant cry. He never heard a sound like that since his umbreon had gotten stabbed by a metal claw attack. Suddenly, it dawned on Paul that his Miracle umbreon wasn't by the fire like she normally was. Putting two and two together, he quickly released his team. The group of females looked at Paul, annoyed and groggy but then they all heard the screams.

"Follow those cries, now!" He said firmly and fearfully.

The team didn't have to be told twice: they recognized the screams. Paul and his team ran through the forest, delphox using her flamethrower to clear a path for everyone while the slower shiny samurott took up the rear and simultaneously made sure the fire from delphox stayed out. Pretty soon, they get into the clearing to see a zoroark knotted in the miracle umbreon and smirking at the whole team as she struggled to push him off only to flinch in pain.

"Don't you guys dare attack me. You try to separate us too soon and it could hurt her." He sneered.

Paul glared at the Zoroark and looked at his Samurott.

"Use ice beam on his knot. That should separate him." Paul said.

"Uh oh!" He said, trying to leap for cover.

The zoroark struggled to get out of the way but the miracle umbreon had regained enough strength to slow him down just enough for samurott to hit him. He yelped as he felt ice enshroud completely around his knot. Now he was trying to get out of the miracle umbreon by clawing forward as she dug her claws into the ground to stop him. She screamed in pain as she felt his iced knot tearing her. Paul didn't know how to make him stop this. So he decided he had no choice but to fight.

"Use X scissor, samurott. Zebstrika, use shock wave. Try not to hurt umbreon." He said.

They nodded and the shock wave paralyzed the zoroark while the x scissor weakened him considerably. The zoroark fell to his knees in a mix of exhaustion, pain, and paralysis. Paul then threw a pokeball and much to the shock and horror of his team, he ended up catching the zoroark.

"I didn't think that would actually catch him. I figured it would be a good way to get him off of umbreon." Paul said to his team as he picked up the pokeball and held it away from himself like a smelly pair of underwear.

The team gathered around the miracle umbreon. She was crying and she rarely cried. The sympathetic team muttered to each other as Paul came over, samurott nuzzling her foster mother. Paul picked the beaten umbreon up and held her close to himself.

"I'm sorry, girl. I'm so sorry." Paul said, looking down at her.

"Paul... it's not... your fault..." She whimpered although too weak and shaken to move.

A nearby rustling in the bushes startle the team suddenly. The all female team stood ready to attack the intruder as the silhouette got closer. Not a single one of them stopped growling with the exception of the miracle umbreon. Out from the bushes stepped a man with long green hair and blue grey eyes. He wore a simple black and white baseball cap, a white shirt with another black shirt underneath, some khaki pants, green shoes, and some accessories that Paul didn't care to examine right now. Paul's team was prepared for a fight. The man held his hands up and made himself look as non threatening as possible. He was rather alarmed but also pleased to see such a good team. He even picked up that they were all female.

"Relax, girls. I mean no harm. I just heard cries for help." the man said.

"She got raped by a stupid zoroark, human. We don't want to be dealing with another problem right now and I doubt Paul here is in any position to be hospitable." the shiny Samurott said.

The man looked shocked and concerned.

"Oh no! So he got to her, too?" He asked, obviously distraught.

The pokemon looked confused as the man approached Paul as he dug around in a bag he carried with him.

"Don't mind me. My name is N. I've made it my mission everywhere to help people and pokemon coexist in harmony. My old team plasma takes in abandoned and abused pokemon to rehabilitate." N said.

Paul looked at the man suspiciously. It was odd for someone to be up this late at night. What was this man doing here?

"Do you know the pokemon that did this?" Paul asked.

"Yes. He was a pokemon that I ran into and I've been tracking him down to put a stop to him." N Said.

Paul tossed N the pokeball.

"Well there you go." Paul said.

"You caught it?!" N asked, shocked.

"I had to get him off of my umbreon somehow. He knotted her and was trying to rip himself apart from her after my samurott iced his knot to try and get it to shrink. I didn't want her to be hurt anymore." Paul said.

N knelt down and took out an oran berry from his bag. He offered it to the umbreon and she took it from him gingerly. Normally, the Miracle umbreon didn't take hand outs from strangers. However, she trusted N already: something about him seemed so familiar. He reminded her of the little boy that used to look after her. He shared the same gentleness as well as held an air about him that told her that he's been through hell and back, too. The umbreon always got along easier with those she knew she could relate to with the exception of Maylene but she is family. Paul looked a little surprised.

"She's normally not good around strangers." Paul said.

"What do you mean?" N asked.

"I don't mean she's aggressive or anything but she's usually shy. She never takes hand outs from anyone other than Reggie, Maylene, and I." Paul said.

"Oh! You're Paul!" N said, surprised

Paul tensed, expecting some kind of rude remark or for N to suddenly back away. He usually got that kind of treatment. He eventually told Mrs. White of his reputation back in the Sinnoh and she was alright with him. Paul rarely tells people of his past unless he knows he can trust them not to judge.

"Which means that this must have been the eevee you helped! I love watching that report in my spare time! Renews my hope for humanity every time." N said.

Paul breathed a sigh of relief. Finally! Someone noticing him for a good deed.

"Yep. This is her." Paul said with a nervous chuckled.

N smiled and stroked the miracle umbreon's cheeks with both hands. She purred at the contact even though she was still crying.

"I don't get why you have a bad reputation where you're from. No one can be a bad person for bringing a sick eevee back from death like that. No one can be a bad trainer and have a protective team like these lovely girls. They've been saying nothing but warnings and threats to me should I do something out of hand. I love to see this. This is what I look for in trainers when I come in unannounced like this." N said, looking at the team surrounding them.

The whole team suddenly all looked at N in questioning.

"Wait, you can understand us?!" The shiny samurott asked.

"Yes, I can understand you." He said to the samurott with a smile.

The team made various exclamations around them.

"You can talk to pokemon?" Paul asked, bewildered.

"Anyone can talk to pokemon. I have the gift of understanding them." N said.

"How?" Paul and his pokemon all asked at the same time.

"It's a long story, really." N said, scratching the back of his head.

"Well we've got nothing but time actually." Paul said, really curious about N's ability as he got up.

"Don't you think we should tend to your umbreon?" N asked.

"That's why I got up." Paul said before turning to his team.

"Let's get back to the camp, girls. N, you can come with if you want. I could make some coffee if you like. I don't think I'm going to be sleeping for awhile." Paul said.

"You're too kind." N said, following Paul and his team.

* * *

Things weren't going so well for Dawn. She didn't know what she just did with Kenny but, she hated it. It was so disgusting, too but, he convinced her to do it. She didn't even know what they just did. Not to mention it hurt and he kept assuring her that it would feel good as they did it but it never did. It didn't help that he would not slow down or stop for her to adjust. She was still bleeding a little even but, she was assured that it was normal... although if she had any common knowledge, it wasn't normal to bleed unless it wasn't being done properly. She remembered asking him afterwards.

"What did we just do?" She asked.

Kenny looked at her in shock but then fell over laughing.

"Your mom never told you about sex? Oh my arceus! You're more sheltered than I thought, DD!" He laughed.

She felt like she was supposed to know and felt stupid for not knowing. However, Dawn was only barely thirteen. She hadn't even had a menstrual cycle yet... and won't for the next five months. Because a life sparked to life within her but... things will become complicated when Kenny finds out. So far, he hasn't been violent with her. All of his abuse has been nothing but mental abuse and he does it in such a way that he doesn't look like a jerk to others but makes Dawn look like an over anxious idiot. That was going to change soon.

* * *

Paul's umbreon was growling at a white egg she had just laid. She was suddenly pained again and squatted for another one to come out. She growled at both eggs in a mix of emotions. She did not know what to feel for these eggs. She flipped out and made angry noises as she started shadow clawing the ground. N quickly grabbed both eggs. On was a bigger white egg while the other was a normal looking brown eevee egg. Eeveelutions were notorious for having a litter depending on the virility of the male that mounted them. The miracle umbreon was completely fluffed up at the site of the eggs and obviously upset. Paul didn't even know what to think. N had just finished telling his new friends his story when the miracle umbreon let out a pained cry and here they were trying to find a way to calm down the distraught new mother while also making sure the eggs didn't get broken.

"I don't think she's too pleased. What should we do with these?" Paul asked, gesturing to the eggs.

"I don't know. She is their mother after all. I just grabbed them in case she tried to break them." N said.

The miracle umbreon suddenly flopped onto her belly and buried her face in her paws, her ears folded down. She didn't know what to do, either. She was already too exhausted from the night before and too distraught to have even remembered that she could have conceived.

"It's not easy for any eeveelution to get over a rape much less care for the resulting offspring. Eeveelutions mate for life and they're usually exclusive to one partner in their life even if they die. If they get violated in the mating season, it ruins them for other eeveelutions sometimes." N explained, kneeling down to pet the grieving umbreon.

"Well then... I guess it may be best if you took the eggs back with you. I don't know how she will act with two kits she didn't originally want." Paul said.

"Three, actually. This white one may be twins. That's why it's so big." N said.

"Oh..." Paul said, looking at the egg.

"Well, it was nice to meet you and your team, Paul. But, now I definitely must go home and try to see if there's anything I can do about this rogue and the kits." N said, standing up to shake Paul's hand.

"No." the miracle umbreon barked.

N and Paul looked at her. She got up and tugged on N's shirt.

"Leave them with me... please. They may be the only blood I'll ever have." She whimpered.

N knelt down and looked the umbreon in the eye.

"Are you sure?" N asked.

"It's not their fault I got raped. I can't hate my own children even if I didn't want them to begin with. Please, let me keep them. I'd never forgive myself if I let them live separate lives." She sniffed.

N smiled and gave her a hug.

"I know you'll be a great mother." He whispered.

N then got up and gave the eggs to Paul.

"Congrats, Paul. It looks like you'll have a couple new members in the team." N said with a smile.

Paul shifted the eggs in his arms before shaking N's hand.

"Good luck, N. Whatever you do, don't release that Zoroark into the wild." Paul said.

"Believe me, I won't. I usually hate confining pokemon but this guy is my exception by definition. Good luck with the kits." N said before leaving.

Paul and his team waved after N before returning to pack up the camp. Paul packed both eggs into his back pack, tucking clothes around them so to avoid breaking them. He and his Umbreon then left for Nuvema town, knowing that it was best that the kits were born at a house.

* * *

**That's it for the darkness of this chapter. There will be at least one more bad thing and then we'll get back to being happy... after some recovery time.**


	10. Life and Death

**Okay, time to bring in some hope... right? Kidding! First a couple tragedies and then we get back to being happy.**

* * *

Paul spent time at Nuvema town and helped Mrs. White around the house while waiting for his Miracle Umbreon to recover as well as for her kits to be born. She would lie curled up around the eggs on a cushion by the fireplace with a fletchinder that had a flamebody ability. It would get insanely hot for the new mom but, she never left except to relieve herself and get a quick snack and drink. The miracle umbreon didn't really seem to recover very well mentally. The only thing keeping her going were her two eggs. She would lie next to them for hours upon hours. The white egg stirred every now and then as the two kits grew inside. The other one was suspiciously still but it wasn't uncommon for the kit to not move very much.

Finally, the white egg started moving. The miracle umbreon called for Paul as she excitedly watched the white egg as it moved. Paul walked into the living room just in time to see the white egg burst open. Mrs. White was sitting on the couch, smiling at the happy sight. True to N's prediction, two white eevee kits tumbled around to get off of each other. The umbreon smiled and nuzzled and groomed her new kits joyously, making the best out of a good thing that resulted from a tragedy. After a moment of getting acquainted to being outside of an egg, they both nuzzled their mother happily. The pair were very loving and from the looks of it, sociable. The umbreon then turned to her other egg. Paul looked at it expectantly, too... but nothing was happening. The twins would paw and bat at the egg to try and encourage their unborn sibling to hatch. As time went on, everyone got increasingly worried.

"It's alright. It takes a little longer for some." Mrs. White said, trying to cheer everyone up.

But something was wrong. Something was horribly wrong. The miracle umbreon tapped the egg herself. Usually, something inside will move but there was nothing. She nudged it a little more roughly and still nothing. Now there are some things pokemon know instinctively... and they know when something is wrong. The miracle umbreon suddenly broke the egg open with a shadow claw to everyone's shock. Everyone was horrified seeing what came out of the egg. The fletchinder quickly shielded the kits from seeing the horrendous site: it was an eevee kit but, it wasn't fully formed. It was so tiny, very skinny, parts of its spine was exposed, it didn't seem to have an anus, its legs weren't properly formed, there was blood everywhere, and it wasn't breathing properly. The kit wouldn't have made it but it was just barely breathing. Paul and the umbreon knew that some of the most impossible things can happen but no miracle could bring this little one back. Still, she nudged it and it made a small noise, like a weak high pitched groan. Mrs. White's hand was over her mouth in utter shock and horror, tears brimming from her eyes. Paul gaped and all the miracle umbreon could do was lay next to her dying kit. She was shocked but instinctively, she groomed the kit. Mimi the mienshao quickly scooped the silver kits up and took them out of the room before they saw their sibling. They called out for their mother as they were taken away, scared and confused.

Paul, after breaking free from his frozen stance, he got up and walked towards his miracle umbreon. The small kit was struggling to breathe. It's breathing was slow and weak. There were long pauses in its breathing. Paul sat next to his umbreon, not caring that he was sitting in a puddle of blood and egg goo. He was not leaving his umbreon alone. Tears fell from her eyes as she rested her head next to the tiny kit. It's breathing became slower and then they became gasps and the gasps soon drifted further and further apart and they got weaker and shorter until finally, the kit no longer breathed. Paul didn't know how long he and his umbreon stayed like that but it was probably the worst time for Hilda White to come into the house.

"Mom! I'm home! Mom? Mom? Why are you crying?" She asked.

Mrs. White broke down crying and pointed to the living room mantle. She went over and saw the miracle umbreon nudging her dead kit desperately, hoping that maybe it will be a miracle like her. Paul then stopped her.

"Umbreon... stop... it's out of its misery. Let it rest in peace. You did what you could." He said to her.

She scooted close to it so that the kit was between her paws and she buried her face in her paws with her kit underneath. She let out a series of pained whimpers. A miracle doesn't happen for everyone.

* * *

Dawn didn't know what to do. Never in her life was she so scared and confused when the doctor told her the news. The doctor was rather distraught and disgusted that Dawn was already sexually active. It wasn't healthy for kids her age to be pregnant. Kenny did not like the news one bit and pulled the doctor aside.

"I want it out of her." He said.

"Kenny, that's not your choice to make." The doctor said.

"She wants it out, too. Right, DD?" Kenny asked.

Dawn was terrified but Kenny didn't want the kid... so maybe it was best she got rid of it... right?

"We can get you in today if you want. You're only three months after all. The baby won't feel a thing." The doctor said.

"Dawn, come on! The media won't like this! I don't even want to think of what your mother with think." Kenny said to her.

Everyone around her kept urging her to get rid of it, even the nurses. No one even entertained the idea that she should keep it. She felt like she had no choice. Like it was a bad thing if she actually kept the baby or even considered the thought. Not to mention that she was top coordinator and a rising star in modeling. She didn't want to lose that. So she decided her choice with a heavy heart.

"Okay... I'll get rid of it." she said.

She was getting rid of the child for the same reason she rejected Paul but... like that time, too, she didn't know if she really wanted to do this... what would Paul do? Would he tell her to get rid of it, too? Dawn was in a daze as Kenny led her out of the room as they followed the doctor. As Dawn was thinking about it more, she was already on a table getting ready for the procedure. Her mind flashed to Charlie and Jamie... She kept thinking about them. She remembered when her mom was three months pregnant and the ultrasounds. Did she really want to be getting rid of something that could also bring her much joy? Does her modeling and top coordinator career really mean that much? She spent too long thinking though.

"Alright, Dawn, the worst part is over. We'll get you fixed up and you'll be on your way." The doctor said to Dawn.

Just like that, before she had time to stop them, it was already done. Dawn vowed never to get an abortion again as she left the clinic that day. No matter how much Kenny would disagree. However, both were careful to not let another accident like that happen. Dawn may never want to have another abortion but, that didn't mean she wanted a baby now. Things slowly got worse for her as time went on. She started getting stressed, skipping meals, and losing sleep with the stress of her career, her toxic relationship with Kenny, and the guilt she felt from terminating her pregnancy.

Meanwhile, her and her blue sylveon were having trouble connecting. It was like that with all of her pokemon but her sylveon was effected most. He was starting to lose trust in his trainer. Why couldn't she see that she was being so cruel to herself? She needed to leave Kenny but if the blue sylveon raised even a claw or even a ribbon to Kenny, Dawn wouldn't let him get away with it, causing the rift between them to get bigger. Through it all, he just wished a miracle would happen... like maybe his miracle umbreon could help. However, though it hurt him to admit it, he wanted to get some distance from Dawn. He felt so useless as a pokemon even if he was her go to for contest battles. It was like no matter how many times he brought in the win, it never effected anything and then if he lost, it just made things worse... the blue fairy type just wanted to be loved by his trainer but everything between him and his trainer felt so empty now.

* * *

It had been three months since the kit died. Mrs. White and Hilda helped Paul keep an eye on the kits and the recovering mother umbreon. She loved her silver kits more than anything but she would still be missing the other kit. Not a day goes by that she doesn't wish the normal kit was with them. The twin kits aren't actually shiny: they're albino. Albino pokemon are even more rare than shiny pokemon. Their colors are limited to three colors: red, pale pink, and white. The kits had red eyes and their bodies were completely snow white with cute pink paws and noses. Both of the kits were female. The miracle umbreon seemed to be beside herself. She appreciated Paul's company but it was like he may as well as be petting a stuff animal. She even shies from him more often than not. Paul didn't know what to do. They just weren't connecting anymore and the umbreon no longer had any interest in battles which was something she loved to do.

Then, there was news on the television. There was a report on Dawn and Kenny and right when Paul was about to change it, he heard the magic words: break up. He kept it on. It turns out Kenny had dumped Dawn or so they say. Kenny talked about how crazy she had gotten or something. Of course, Kenny was doing what he always did: make everyone look like he wasn't the problem and that Dawn was just being an idiot. Dawn was actually the one that broke everything off. The last straw was when Kenny had hurt piplup. Dawn was just too tired to even argue with her ex lover. The cameras were on Dawn and she didn't look very good: there were dark rings around her eyes, she looked sickly pale, and a little thinner than she should. Her blue sylveon trailed behind her like he was at a funeral. Paul knew something wasn't right about Kenny's story. Dawn did not get like that on her own. Paul's blood boiled: what caused this and why? If Kenny had done this shit to her, Paul was going to make sure he paid. When the story was over, Paul started pacing in his room, not able to figure out what he should do. He felt like he had to help her in some way. Hilda then had an idea as she saw Paul pace around.

Hilda was practically like Paul's big sister. She had befriended him in a short amount of time and she was one of the few people Paul could trust one hundred percent. It wasn't uncommon for her to greet Paul with a hug and kiss his cheek. Paul had no idea how he took to Hilda so quickly but, he was thankful to have someone to count on other than Mrs. White. He was so well acquainted with the white family that he'll address Mrs. White as 'mom' as well. Both women looked on in concern before Hilda spoke up.

"You know, if you're so stirred up over it, you could switch pokemon with her." Hilda said.

"What?" Paul asked, looking at the older teen.

"Paul, you and umbreon need a little distance. The same seems to be for that sylveon of hers. He was trailing rather far behind her. Didn't you tell me he usually walks with at least one of his ribbons around her?" She asked.

Hilda was right. The blue fairy type did seem a little defeated as he followed Dawn during the news report.

"You and her know each other well enough. Why not try it?" Hilda asked.

Paul thought about it for a minute... the idea was crazy but...

"This might just work." Paul said.

* * *

Paul was a little troubled by his umbreon seeming indifferent to the idea. She loved her kits but she seemed so dead... like nothing could really liven her up. He was at a long distance trading station. He was surprised with how quick Dawn was willing to let him barrow her sylveon. It was like she didn't even want him anymore or something. So Dawn came onto the phone and she was a mess. Didn't even bother to brush from the looks of it. She seemed tired, too.

"Umm... Maybe you should go to bed. You don't look so good." Paul said.

"I'm fine Paul. Can we please just get this over with?" She said, irritated.

"Okay." He said, placing his miracle umbreon's ball in the machine.

Soon, there was a flash and another ball was with Paul. He released the blue sylveon. He looked rather sad but he waved a ribbon to Dawn, not looking at her. Umbreon called to Paul and he nodded at her.

"Take care of her, Dawn. She is recovering from losing a kit." He said.

Bewildered, Dawn looked at the umbreon. The blue sylveon felt his heart shatter. So she found a new mate? Now not even his Miracle umbreon could cheer him up?

"She got raped by a zoroark at night. By the time my team and I got to her, it was too late. I have her two kits with me. Their twins. Both of them are albino. I can send you pictures if you want but I'll need a way to do that." Paul said, a little flustered.

Dawn wordlessly left him her number on the screen. He fumbled and wrote it down quickly. The blue sylveon felt so bad for the miracle umbreon. He still loved her but his issue with getting back to her was that he didn't know if she'd accept him. It is also common for violated females to reject males due to guilt or shame. Still, when she recovers, the blue fairy type knew he would try. Paul finished writing Dawn's number down.

"Thanks. Get some rest, alright?" Paul said, concerned.

Dawn nodded, wiping a tear from her eye. What was her problem Paul wondered.

"Thank you, Paul. I'll make sure to take good care of umbreon. Keep sylveon out of trouble." She said, her voice strained, as if she was trying not to cry.

Then her image went away and Paul was left with the blue fairy pokemon. Paul knelt down and offered his hand to his new companion and the sylveon seemed grateful for the offered affection as he happily nuzzled Paul's hand. He seemed to protest when Paul took his hand away but, the sylveon wrapped his ribbon around Paul's left arm. Though a little embarrassed, Paul had a feeling that this sylveon was in need of attention. He's acting like he's been ignored for awhile or something. Paul decided to encourage his companion a little by holding the end of his ribbon that curled against his palm. The sylveon chirped happily. He got up and walked away with his rather unexpected companion. Little did Paul know that this girly blue fairy type was probably going to be the best of the best out of all the pokemon he has ever trained. The sylveon knew he would be or die trying. He wanted to better himself for Dawn and especially for the miracle umbreon.

* * *

**Oooooh the feels! The feels are strong with this one!**


	11. Powerful Hearts

**Let's continue!**

* * *

Paul woke up to see nothing but the blue fur of the blue sylveon. The feminine male was rather clingy to his new trainer. Despite harsh training, the blue fairy type still remained as close to Paul as he was allowed to get away with. Now Paul was worried because of this behavior. What had Dawn done to have turned the pokemon into this? Sure, the blue sylveon was very loving before but now it was like he did not want to be left alone.

So Paul had been training his new addition in both battle and personal space. The other members of his current team were happy to welcome him into the team and made sure the only male felt welcome even while training. Having being able to use attract and draining kiss as a combination was a very strong advantage over all the female team members. It wasn't just a silly contest routine: it worked just about all the time. And for some reason, the blue sylveon's attract was genderless: it would work on males, too. It was rare but not unheard of for such a thing to happen. Nurse Joy remarked that in pokemon standards, the sylveon was practically androgynous in a sense. However he doesn't seem to have an issue with his biology. But his behavior and looks to many pokemon was very female. Unless he was to give his opponents a good view of his privates, not a single other strange pokemon could tell he was male. In all honesty, the blue sylveon was perfectly fine with what he was. He loved being 'one of the girls' but didn't mind the fact that his anatomy would say otherwise. He was just as he was meant to be and beloved by both his team with Dawn and his team with Paul.

Paul woke the feminine Pokemon up. The blue fairy groaned, and hugged Paul's face in protest. Annoyed yet amused by the blue fairy's stubbornness, he jabbed his new partner lightly in the ribs, a sensitive spot for the Pokemon. The sylveon let go of Paul's face and stretched with a yawn. The sylveon nuzzled Paul and he rolled his eyes. Paul was not used to this kind of affection, even from his umbreon. Speaking of which, both males wondered what those two were doing now. Paul got up and left the tent, the sylveon not far behind. It was time to train.

* * *

Dawn was awake in bed, staring up at the ceiling, lost in thought. She was thirsty but didn't feel like getting up. She hadn't showered in awhile and she barely ate. Kenny had damaged her bad with the emotional abuse. Parts of herself were arguing but most of all, her self esteem had been all but destroyed. The only thing that didn't wipe out her self esteem was the fact that the modeling agency still wanted to hire her for another ad. Then there was the miracle umbreon whom was asleep at the edge of her bed. Flareon and her mother's umbreon were snuggled next to the female, sensing the distress the young mother was in. The two older females were grooming her while the young female laid there, her ears drooping but her eyes were open. She was numb to the treatment she was being given.

The female umbreon had to pee but like Dawn, really didn't feel like getting up. She rarely took care of her own fur and she'd look un-kept if it wasn't for the fact that the pack of eeveelutions made sure she was well groomed. They often had to coax her into eating enough to keep her healthy. Paul had sent her kits to come over and they were asleep on a bean bag, cuddled next to piplup. Rain fell lightly outside. Dawn stared at the scene. What good was lying in bed doing for any of them? She wasn't going to go anywhere in life if she stayed here like this. She let out a sigh and forced herself out of bed. She noticed that the miracle umbreon hadn't been out in awhile. So Dawn picked her up. You would think the umbreon would protest but, she didn't make a sound. Dawn set the umbreon in the grass gently out the back door. Sure enough, the female peed the moment she was set down. The umbreon groaned in relief. Dawn went back inside and microwaved some soup for herself while prepping some food for the umbreon, all the other pokemon having eaten already.

The umbreon later came in through the pokemon door. Dawn set down the food near the table and ate her soup. She half expected the umbreon to not eat any of it or the pack would come and coax her into eating again. However, the umbreon noticed that this was the first time Dawn had made a move to really do anything for herself much less her. Touched by the small motivation Dawn seemed to have acquired, she ate the food offered. Dawn was surprised to see the female eat on her own without any coercing from the others. So Dawn also ate and suddenly, she realized she was really hungry. Had she always been this hungry? No matter, Dawn ate the bowl of soup completely and noticing the dish the umbreon had was licked clean, Dawn picked up both dishes and washed them. Still quite hungry, she grabbed some oran berries from the fridge. She offered one to the umbreon whom happily took it.

Dawn later sat in the living room, she had a warm blanket around herself. The eevee kits had woke up and they decided to try convincing their mother to play and she actually did play with them. At first, she only just laid down and let them climb on her but then she suddenly would pin them and tickle their ribs, race and chase them around the living room while Dawn would watch with a smile. For the first time, it seems that Kenny, that horrible zoroark, and that dead kit did not seem to be relevant to this moment. And then, both girls seemed to realize then and there that it truly was not relevant as to what happened. What matters is how they go on from here. It didn't mean that those experiences would be forgot but it did no one good to just lay around and do nothing. The sun broke through the clouds and Dawn knew that she'd make sure that they'd keep moving. Neither of them are allowed to lay in bed like that again. She was determined to never let that happen again.

* * *

Another exhausting day of training was over. Paul sat down next to the fire and treated one of the blue sylveon's ribbons. It got a deep wound from a bite attack. The ribbon itself was almost pierced. However, Paul carefully nursed the injury and put a healing spray on it. Within minutes, the wound scabbed over and the sylveon relaxed finally. Paul then took out some gauze and bandages and wrapped the wound as best as he could. He hated it when his pokemon got wounds like this. They were bound to happen, sure, but Paul cringed every time. Most battles don't usually result with deep wounds. Usually minor scrapes, cuts, and scratches are acquired from a battle. However, they're still battles and serious injuries are unavoidable. Paul allowed the sylveon to lie next to him, his back propped against his trainer's leg, his bandaged ribbon resting in front of him while the rest lazily rested against Paul, one of them wrapped loosely around the trainer's shin. If Paul stirred to get up, the sylveon would move right away.

Next to the sylveon were the eevee kits. Dawn had given them back that day when Paul was on his way to buy potions for the days training. She said something about 'getting back into things' with a determined look. She looked better than ever, her hair had even been cut shorter. He knew that she was coming out of whatever she went through. However, Paul was troubled that neither her nor sylveon bothered with each other. In fact, the sylveon seemed nervous to see her. But, umbreon only briefly greeted Paul. He sighed, having a feeling that both pokemon were growing apart from their original trainers. Both sylveon and Paul were depressed about this. The only thing that brightened sylveon's day was hearing umbreon in the back ground say 'I miss you, Blue. Take care of Paul and the kits for me.' as she looked on from the couch in the background. She did greet Paul but he didn't see or hear it.

Then, Paul noticed someone in the bushes as he pondered his umbreon. He saw a familiar head of green hair and sure enough, N comes walking out of the bushes. The team stirred at the sight of the intruder but relaxed upon realizing who it was. Sylveon greeted N though never having seen the man before but, he trusted his team as they seemed familiar with the green haired man.

"May I join you?" N asked.

"Sure." Paul said.

N sat across the fire and he noticed the sylveon.

"Wow. A shiny sylveon. I didn't know you were the kind of guy to like fairy types." N said.

"He's an exception. A friend and I decided to trade them temporarily because of how depressed they both looked. Umbreon seems to be doing well..." Paul said, a little pained.

N could sense something was off.

"You sound troubled. Mind telling me what's wrong?" N asked.

He sighed and looked at N. For some reason, like Hilda, he feels he could trust N enough to tell him things.

"Umbreon didn't really say anything to me..." Paul said.

Sylveon stood up.

"You're wrong! She called to you! She told me to take care of you!" Sylveon said.

Paul didn't understand but N did and relayed it to Paul. Paul seemed relieved.

"Thank arceus... I was scared she was forgetting me." Paul said, relieved.

Sylveon got onto his hind legs and affectionately gave Paul a gentle headbutt. Paul chuckled and gave the sylveon a scratch behind the ears.

"Oh Paul, we never forget our trainers. Even when they forget us..." Sylveon trailed off.

N looked at sylveon with a questioning look. N relayed it to Paul.

"What do you mean?" Paul asked.

Sylveon looked at the fire, obviously hurt.

"It's just that... Since Kenny had forced her to go to that doctor, she hadn't been the same. Before that when she started dating Kenny, things were great! But then things started to get bad, especially after he mated her. She didn't even seem to know what had happened to her and it hurt her each time they did that but she did it just to make him happy. I don't even think she understood any of it. But, Arceus! I hated him ever since that happened. He took advantage of her ignorance. From then on, I'd come between her and Kenny if he was saying anything particularly nasty and then later she'd take his side even though he'd still be hurting her. To make things worse, none of my contest battles seemed to mean anything to her and then when I'd lose, she'd get upset... I only lost twice since she got with Kenny but, arceus! I felt like I failed her each time with how hurt she'd seem. But she would at least acknowledge me then and say something. But when Kenny left, it was like I may as well as had a statue for a trainer. I never felt so useless in my entire life... My trainer was hurting and I couldn't do anything to help." Sylveon said, crying.

N was shocked at this news and Paul looked at N with a questioning look. The sylveon had collapsed, crying hysterically.

"What did he say?" Paul asked.

N relayed what he heard and Paul sat there in shock as well. Dawn was basically in an abusive relationship. He felt enraged. Why didn't she report him to the police or something? Why didn't she get help? N had come over to the other side of the fire and was petting the crying sylveon.

"Paul." N said, breaking him out of his racing thoughts.

The sylveon had his ribbons clutched around himself, his legs retracted under and against his body, his head on the ground. Paul grabbed the blue fairy and pulled him partially onto his lap. The sylveon froze, a little unsure since Paul is usually not one to do this kind of thing but after a few reassuring strokes, all of his ribbons wrapped around Paul's waist and torso tightly and he continued crying into Paul's jacket. Paul was obviously not used to this kind of thing but he still stroked the blue fairy type gently. This was his partner now and he knew he just couldn't leave sylveon crying but then he thought back to Dawn. Just how long did she do this to him? Not to mention her other pokemon. More importantly, how long did Kenny do this to them?

"Usually, I'd hate a trainer for showing such neglect but in this case, it's hard. I've seen Kenny on TV while I was at the Sinnoh region. He doesn't treat his pokemon bad. But sometimes just because someone treats their pokemon well won't always mean they treat humans well... I learned that the hard way myself." N said with a bitter chuckle.

"What?" Paul asked.

"I used to think all humans were bad. I was raised around pokemon and then my father found me and raised me with pokemon who were abused... He tailored me to hate humans just so I could be a figurehead for Team Plasma. He used me as a tool to try and take over the world. As you would imagine, I didn't always act nice with others." N said, obviously still regretful.

"Oh... What stopped you?" Paul asked.

"Hilda..." N said.

"I know her. I'm staying with her and her mom while I'm here." Paul said.

"Really? She didn't tell you about me?" N asked.

"Her and I never really see each other much due to my training but she's really nice. I trust her. She's like the sister I never had. But, I never heard the full story of how she saved the Unova region" Paul said.

N smiled with a fond smile.

"I'll tell you then. I remember when I met her, she was the first trainer I had met who had pokemon that loved her despite just getting them. It shocked me but then, she was really the first trainer I actually to the time to talk to. Her pokemon... Oh arceus! They were magnificent and they loved her to bits!" N said, enthused.

Paul was not too sure of himself when it came to reading human emotion but one thing was obvious: N really liked Hilda.

* * *

**Well that's it for this chapter. Sorry for lack of activity. I've been busy with school... and missing someone who shouldn't be worth missing. Nyeh! Breakups suck!**


End file.
